The Adventures of Carlin the Red
by Beowolf
Summary: An apathetic Red Mage loses all he thought he could depend on. When he meets a fiesty Mithra, a cowardly Galka, a vuloptuous Black Mage, a White Mage who just cant get no respectaru, and a mysterious Thief, what trials will he face?
1. Chapter 1: His Name is Carlin Ol'orin

Authors note: I don't own any right to FFXI but seeing as I have no intention of selling this story I don't think it really matters, seriously I just… AHEM n e way I own nothing related to FFXI, all characters presented in this story are of mine own devising unless otherwise noted by use of the sign.

Chapter 1: His name is Carlin Ol'orin

Today was a day just like any other, dull, and boring. Life on this island is so utterly dull. My Grand pa likes to lecture me with tales of how this land once faced eminent disaster at the hands of some being called the Shadow Lord… blah blah blah, World nearly destroyed… Nations banded to gather blah blah blah… Why does any of this matter any more? The Beastmen where defeated, everything is ordinary again, why should I care about something that happened so long ago? Oh sorry, I haven't told you my name yet have I? Its…

"Carlin…."

My name is…

"Carliiiiin…"

its…

"CARLIN VELTO OLORIN GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND HELP ME WITH THE RAFT!"

Ugh. Yes, my name is Carlin Velto Ol'orin for my entire seventeen years of existence, I have lived on this dull, boring, eventless island. Gramps is fond of telling me that I should consider myself fortunate to live in a place so far removed from the great nations(even though, as I always remind him, we are technically Bastokers seeing as we're in their sphere of influence).

"AGH comin Gramps," I grumpily leapt down of the branch I had been daydreaming on and headed over to where my grandpa and older sister where busily working on a new raft.

"I swear to Altana boy, if your parents where alive…" Again with that, gramps was always reminding me of how I was nothing like my parents, both legends in their own right; they had played a major part in the downfall of the Shadow Lord all those years ago, so I'm told- over and over and over….

When gramps finally shut his big yap my sister was quick to pick up the slack in between grunts of strain as she tightened various ropes on the dinky craft they called a raft. "Carlin-rgh- what kinda man are you-nyah-makin an old man and a young lady do this kinda work? I'd rather be slaving over a hot pot then tying ropes. This is YOUR job I'm doing." Blah blah blah, see what I mean?

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, go on and fly a kite little miss dainty flower, I'll handle the rest." MY sister gave me a pouty face as usual but said nothing as she got up and went off to do whatever it is that girls do. I knelt down and grabbed some rope to bind together. Apparently regaining his vigor, my grandpa took the opportunity to start laying into me again. "Your father, a Paladin of the highest caliber, your mother, A White Mage of great reverence, your sister is so dedicated to her studies, while YOU on the other hand, are apt to laze about at any given opportunity, and give up on just about every subject you delve into the moment it seems like it might get just a little bit tough.

"Geez grandpa, you make it sound like there's some big pay off waiting if I waste my life away laboring toward some goal…" I grabbed the pole that would serve to hold the sail and put it in its place in the center of the raft.

"Boy, I Ain't gonna be around forever, your sister can take care of herself just fine but at the rate your going you'll never amount to anything."

"I don't WANT to amount to anything, how many times do I have to tell you that, I already have all the skills I need to able to sustain myself for the rest of my life, what else do you want from me?"

Gramps shook his head ruefully. "Thank Altana you're parents are no longer of this world to hear such talk. You delved into white magic, gave that up almost immediately, tried yourself as a warrior, gave that up after your first tussle with a crab, and even dabbled into the black arts, and you even gave up that!" my grandpa gave one final yank of the cords he was tying and patted his hands, satisfied with his work, as if this dinky raft was some great doing. I busied myself with tying the mast down to the raft base. I took this time to try once more to convince my grandpa to see things my way.

"Look grandpa, I just don't see a point in me going off and achieving some enormous success, why do that when I'm perfectly well off with what I can do right here on this island?"

My grandpa, a black mage himself, stood up stretched himself, and looked down at me. "I always thought that your opinion of this island would spur you to newer and newer heights to get off it. I suppose it was my mistake, our family isn't immune to turning out dull-borns every now and then." Now, see, usually I'm not an overly emotional kind of guy, sure I might get a little angry, find a bit of pleasure in something or other, but usually I'm pretty mellow. That's why what happened next surprised myself, I think, more so even then my grandpa.

I slammed my fist down on the raft, (sturdy as it was not even a splinter emerged) and stood up. "I'M SICK OF THIS!" I had completely lost it, my sensibilities flooded out in a sea of red rage. "WHY THE HELL DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO BE LECTURED? I DIDN'T ASK TO BE BORN INTO THIS FAMILY- ALL I WANT IS TO LIVE IN PEACE, WHY SHOULD I PUT MYSELF THROUGH HELL FOR PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW WHYS HOULD I GO DO GLORIOUS THINGS WHEN I CAN LIVE A LIFE OF EASE RIGHT HERE?" Grandpa stared at me, as did my sister, who had rushed to the doorway of the little hut that we called home. Both were speechless, in a sudden moment the rage I felt was gone, but a spiteful; aftertaste remained. I turned away from them. "I-I'm… forget it…" I wanted to say I was sorry but I was so filled with spite I couldn't even part my lips. I just walked away, climbed up into my favorite spot on my favorite tree, and sat there, grandpa and sis said nothing, or if they did I didn't hear it, grandpa put his arm around my sisters shoulder (was she sobbing?) and the two of them went back inside, finally leaving me alone. As I sat there on the branch, full of spiteful, short-lived sentiments. I somehow managed to drift into a fitful sleep.

It was only much later, during nightfall that I was awakened by a soft voice whispering. "Carlin?" My sister calling to me, strange thing, I have a reputation for being able to sleep through a hurricane(one hit just recently as I'm told) but when I hea my sisters voice, I have no trouble at all with waking up. I looked down to see her standing at the foot of the tree, she had a look on her face that suggested she feared I might jump down and bite her head off. Guess she was still shocked by my outburst earlier, me however, I had already gotten over it. Like I said, I don't get emotional and I certainly don't dwell, it's a stupid way to pass time.

"What?" I asked her sleepily. Not really wanting to be awake right at the moment. "I uhm.. well… aren't you hungry?" I cocked an eye at her. "You're asking me that at this time of night?" She shook her head.

"Well, no that's not really why II came out here but…" She appeared to be struggling for words, things like that usually irritate me, but I was used to it from my sister. I decided to head her off. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened before alright? You know I usually don't get crazy like that." She nodded.

"I know, that's why I was concerned. Are you feeling well?" Geez what a worry-wort, her and grandpa both. "I'm FINE ok? Go back to sleep you have lessons tomorrow." She sighed as though exasperated. "Alright… are you sure your not hungry?" I gave her a tired look. "Yes I'm sure." In that instant, I found that my stomach chose just that opportunity to betray me with a loud rumbling.

GROOOWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRR

My sister smiled. "I'll go fix you something." She walked off back toward the hut. I closed my eyes and prepared to drift back into slumber once again. I guess it was just when I was about to go under that it happened. It began with a shriek piercing the frigid yet humid night air and suddenly there was a blast of heat from all around as fire erupted seemingly from nowhere, setting the plant life ablaze. I jumped down from my tree just in time to see it go up as well. I ran toward the hut instinctively sure of my intention even without my consciousness' awareness.

When I got within sight of the hut I saw three figures in night-black cloaks standing there, one was exceptionally tall with pointy ears and dark skin, an Elvaan(I think). The other was a Hume like me… or was he Elvaan? He seemed to be both at the same time. He had light-green hair and gray eyes. In his hands was what I recognized to be a high quality rifle; I believe it was a Serpentine Gun model. The last was what looked like a brown-furred cat-woman, she had pink-white hair and red eyes, or rather, one red eye- the other had a patch over it.

The one with the gun had my sister over his shoulder. The three appeared to be chatting amongst themselves. I could just make out my grandpa, slumped before them; breathing heavily, a bad thing to be doing in this intense flame. I found myself unable to move even with the flames encroaching on my position. I pulled out my Bronze dagger and charged toward them, there was no way I would let these freaks, whoever the hell they where, do anything to my family.

The dark skinned one turned and saw me, smiling a calm sinister grin as I charged at him first, having assumed him to be the leader. He silently lifted his staff and pointed it at me. " Thundera…" I don't know what happened next, all I know is I felt a sudden shock and then I fell to the ground. With both my grandpa and my sister in their possession. I had just enough left in me to watch them walk off into the flames before my world became infinite black.

OOC: you like? dislie? Reviews appreciated, no flames please


	2. Chapter 2: So it Begins

Chapter 2: So it Begins

"Wakey wakey..." A voice from the beyond, calling out to me. "C'mon, don't tell me I was too late..." the ethereal voice spoke again coming from all around. There was another sound too, crackling... like a fire...and a feeling... like a cool breezed mixed with heat "Shoot, don't tell me I went and wasted time cooking two portions like this for nothing." The voice again spoke, why was Altana's messenger talking so, odd? A sharp sensation on my... cheek? Suddenly, I saw a horizontal sliver of light forming in front of me, slowly, it grew wider, and brighter, and wider, and then.

"Good of you to finally rejoin the living." Right above me a figure... male... Hume - with silver hair and golden eyes... Wait a minute...what? "Hey what's with you? I got something nasty on my face?" What the hell? Was I dead or what? "Hey didn't anybody ever teach you its not nice to stare?" teach...lessons. Grandpa! SIS! I sat bolt upright, which unfortunately resulted in my clonking y head hard against the head of the guy looking down at me. He fell back and put a hand to his head while I used both of mine to rub my aching skull. Well that clinched it, the pain was there, but it wasn't horrible, though it felt like it, not heaven, but not hell either.

The silver haired guy laughed as he brought his hand down from his head. "Hehehe, Am I-ha - am I that scary? Heheha..." I didn't see what was so amusing- I looked around. I was wrapped in a blanket near a small fire which had clearly been much bigger not so long ago on the other side of the fire was a sleeping bag. I looked all round, we were near a cave. Most of the area around was barren. Off in the distance, I saw big hulking creatures hefting mining equipment along with smaller Humes.

My sister, my grandfather- were where they? I looked at the guy with silver hair. A million questions ran through my mind at that moment. Where was I, what happened to ramps, what about my sister, who was this guy... and most importantly, what the hell was with these deck-of-cards like clothing that were laying next to me? Red and black were their predominant colors... what the hell was going on?

"Hey where are gramps and my sister?" I asked with urgency." The silver haired guy looked over at me. "Eh? I only found you buddy, wasn't a single other soul on that island but you. Damn strange too, everything was burnt to a crisp. Guess mebee all those layers of soot that acculated on you kit you safe from the worst of the fire, still, pretty weird hat you actually managed to survive." It was then that I noticed what the guy was wearing, and it struck me odd that one such as him would say such a thing.

"You're a...paladin aren't you? Then why do you refer to my survival as if it were luck?" He looked up with a slightly bemused expression. "Just a term of phrase, don't take it to mean I'm faithless." I shook my head at that statement. "I didn't mean it like that... I just. wait-" Suddenly, something he'd said clicked.

"My sister and grandpa-were gone?" A hollow feeling suddenly welled up inside me it felt at once like a shocking chill and a flash of burn. My mind began reeling at the implications. "What about our home? The trees the other people from town? (I say town but it was little more then collections of shacks lined up together where people both lived and did their business. The island isn't that big after all.) Surely, SURELY there was something else someone else...

"Like I told ya buddy, not a single solitary soul, no grass no trees no animals no people, just you and soot and sand." The hollow sensation in me grew considerably; this simply COULD NOT be real. "No, that's not possible. I WON'T ACCEPT IT!" The silver haired guy gave me a surprised look. Impulsively I grabbed the cloth that had been set aside for me, now my only possessions, and I ran, ran as for as I could from that disgusting liar with his stupid aimless attitude.

Without intending to, I found myself at the entry-gates to Bastok. Two large Galka guards looked at me with a look of supreme dislike (I had run past them and slammed into the gate that lead into Bastok.) "Proof of Citizenship?" one said curtly. I looked at him dumbfound, I then remembered the clothing that I had in my hands, I decided to search the pockets, not knowing what I intended to produce; Altana must have been smiling on me though, because my hand found a small object in one of the side pockets, a ring, not just any ring, a Signet Ring with the symbol of Bastok emblazoned upon it. I showed it to the guards who inspected it suspiciously, then, grudgingly, they opened the gates and allowed me into Bastok.

By Altana what a sight, machines everywhere, people of various colors sizes and races, I found it difficult to take it all in. I walked around aimlessly for awhile, not knowing what I meant to do, but noticing that many of the oddly clothed people giving me suspicious and curious looks, I noticed that a few of the people here were dressed in clothes similar to my own. I decided that the first thing I would do was get changed out of my own clothes (which I only now realized were charred and covered in soot.) and don the clothes that had been given to me, it displeased me to think I owed thanks to that Paladin, though my mind was slowly beginning to wrap itself around the idea that I no longer had a home to go back to.

I found an Inn where the keeper was gracious enough to permit me the usage of the bathroom in order to change without having to pay. I relievedly went in and removed the clothes which I had grown accustomed to wearing for so long, and piece by piece, I slipped on the pants, shirt, boots, and gloves. As I finished dressing I picked up my old clothes, which were too burnt and sooted to do me good anymore anyway- and threw them in the trash. As I was about to leave the bathroom I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I turned and walked toward it. It was a strange feeling, somehow I knew that this was not simply a different look, these clothes indicated who I was, just as they did for all those people I saw out there. I was no longer simply Carlin Ol'orin resident of the isle. I was now Carlin Ol'orin, -The Red Mage.


	3. Chapter 3: How Legends Get Started

Chapter 3: How Legends Get Started

Okay... So I was Carlin... The Red Mage... now what? I didn't exactly know what was expected of me. Did this job place me under obligations of some sort? If so, I would adhere to them, if not, even better. It had been a few days since I had lost my home my family, and everything. I had yet to do anything substantial in the new life I found myself thrust into. I had found a few oddjobs here and there from people to get the funds I needed to keep myself fed and sheltered, but that was pretty much it, except for having taken up BlackSmithing I'd forged myself a Mythril Dagger and sold off the old Bronze one at the auction house.

"At least it helped me get experienced with me Jay Oh Bee." I muttered to myself bitterly. Not that I didn't appreciate having abit more of a clue as to who and what I was in the world but the question remained, what was I going to do with this? I did not think it wise to go all that far from Bastok, though many told me with my current skill level I was more then capable of it. There was plenty of work I could do here, so why bother going anywehre else? Sure my family was gone... But realisitcally, what could I do about that? I hadn't the slightest clue where they'd been taken and I highly doubted anyone here in Bastok would know anything.

Well, at least I knew that.. if I WANTED to... I could go a fair way beyond the borders of Bastok, the oddjobs I'd taken had familirized me with my job, and after some studious studying of various scrolls I'd mastered all of the spells up to level 23, which, was essentially how much experience I had with this job of mine, so it evened out. I had even taken up some practice with being a warrior, but found it to be not to my liking, the lack of magic felt like tieing both hands behind my back and being forced to fight with just one foot. Still, it felt good to have something to fall back on when the magic tapped out.

I groggily threw myself out of my bed. Feeling, shambling and fumbling my way to my bathroom. I took my tiem bathing and refreshing myself, there was no need to rush anything, only fools were hurried in their ways, that led to screw ups, which then of course got blamed on everything and anything but oneself. When I was done with that I dried myself off and got dressed in my Red Mage gear, making sure to place my dagger in its hilt at my side.

_...sigh..._

And so I left my little hole in the wall called a home to greet the oh-so-glorious dust hewn dawn that was the awakening Bastok. First things first, I needed to get something to eat. I went down west headed for The Bastok Markets. I turned and made my way toward the stairwell that led up to the metalworks. Despite the fact that it was still rather early the Bastok Markets were bustiling with activity, I guess those that consider themselves adventurers don't have the same daily routin that normal folk do.

_**BOOM**_

"AGH! WHA TH HEY?" I fell over backward and fell flat on my ass. "Ahhhaahhh, owowowowowowwwwwwwwwww..." I rubbed my rear section and cocked one eye to see who the hell had rammed into me. Before I could blink howevr I was pounced upon by the female, who, judging from the long, thin, swishy thing comin out her rear was a Mithra. She had a look of deepest concern on her face that she seemed almost comical when she spoke.

"OHOHOOHOHOH! I'mmm soooo sorrrrry I diddn't mean to huuuuurrrrrrrt youuuu!" She shot out rapid fire as she turned me over and placed her hands on my rear end. For a few seconds everything flashed from normal to white, normal white normal white. Then it stopped, and I for one couldn't have felt more violated.

"WH-wh-what the hell you doin, dontcha think you should at least ASK before you go placin hands on peoples... private areas?" I asked her in a fit of bemusement and confusion more then anger, after all... how could one dislike such a pretty face... that cute nose... that light red hair... those lovely...brown eyes... and that lovely pair of...

"Hey hey hey, if your gunna ogle her you should at least try bein a little nice. It was just an accident afterall." I looked up to see a familiar silver haied gold eyed guy looking down at me with an amused look. "You aint much the ladies man are you?" He asked sarcastically with a light laugh.

I wasn't amused, in fact, I was highly irritated. I stood up and brushed myself off. "Who asked you?And for that matter, what ARE you doin' here? Aintchoo got elsewheres ta be?" I asked.

The Mithra girl suddenly ducked behind the silver haired guy and stuck out her tounge, with closed eyes. "Nuuu! He wasss helpiin me commeee herrre, I goot looost in a nearrrby forrrest and heee helped me ouuut. He helped me get back to glorrrrious wonderrrfull civilization! I was lost forrr a wholee week!"

Whoa, that voice sure was...nice... AGHHHHHHHHHH What am I doin? I have nothing to do with her! "Egh, whatever, I'm getting breakfast at the craftsman's eatery, later..." I turned to resume my quest for noursihment but stopped short when I heard the silver haired guy speak again.

"Breakfast? Hey that sounds good, I haven't eaten a good meal in awhile. Whatya say Silvie?" The cat-girl perked up immediatly when she heard the silver haired guy( I really aaughta think of a shorter name for him) address her.

"Yeah yeah yeah! FISHYFISHY FISHY! You'll pay?" She burst out ecstatically, adding the last part with a cutesy timidity.

"Heheh, Yeah sure, I'll pay, I've got plenty left over from the odd jobs I did. haddya say... uhmmmm.. What was your name again?"

I turned back toward him. "Carlin, Carlin Ve... The Red." This answer earned another hearty laugh from the dubious Paladin.

"Alrighty then Carlin Ve-the The Red. Whats say we all eat breakfast together? can't hurt can it?" I shrugged and turned back to go to the Metalworks.

"Ergh, whatever, sure. Just don't expect me to pay anything." And at long last I headed off to The Metal Works.


	4. Chapter 4: THIS is How Legends Get Start...

Chapter 4: THIS is how Legends Get Started?

When I finally got to th craftsmans eatery I was so hungry I could devour twelve Gigas. As Soon as I found a seat I made my order to the first waitress who came along. The Place had improved in service quite abit since the second fall of the Shadow Lord, so I'm told. I was glad to hear it. I'd hate to have to eat out in a non-restaurant setting. That's just the way I am. I looked up at the waitress for a moment and noted her features, she was a Hume, pale white skin, hazel eyes, light burnette, medium bust... "AHEM", the look she gave me told me I'd better get to ordering.

"Ah yes, I'll have two Bird Eggs, sunny side up, 3 pieces of Black Bread, toasted, Two orders of Grilled Hare, a Goblin Pie, and two Large glasses of Chocolate Milk please." Did you think I was kidding when I said I was hungry enough to eat twleve Gigas? The waitress quickly scribbled down everything on her notepad thing and moved on to my two...er.. "Breakfast Partners" who, as it turned out, were not any less hungry then myself.

The Mithra girl, Silvie, ordered first. "Ooh ooh ooh, I'lll haaave, three orders of Elshimo Frog, two orders of Emperor Roe and FIVE orders of Forest Carp, annnnd a jug of Chamomile Tea, please." I shook my head and turned to the side, stifling the urge to laugh. I could just imagine what kind of thoughts were going through the waitresses head at that moment.

And finally she moved on to Silver( As I now called the Paladin). "Hmmmmmmm..." He seemed, to me at least, to be trying to make an overly dramatic diplay of his indecision about what he wanted. "I dunnnooooooo... ahhhhhhhhh..." THe waitress, at this point, looked like she might snap her pen in half, I suppose that meant she'd had a bad day. Sliver, for his part, didn't seem to catch the hint, but made his order." I'lllll haaaaaavvve... five orders of Galkan Sausage, three orders of Gysalh greens, three Herb Crawler Eggs, One Sausage Roll, aaaaaaaannnnnnnd..." He paused for an obnxiously long moment. a jug of Windurstian Tea please."

By now the poor waitress had taken up four or five pages worth of notepad. She seemed very reluctant to say her next line. "Will there be...anything else... sis and..miss?" I waved my hand dismissively.

"Thas all for me." I said eagerly.

"I'm good to go!" chirped the Mithra girl.

"All Set." Said Silver.

The waitress was barely able to disguise a sigh of relief. "Alright sirs and miss, your order should be ready in an hour, call me if you need me! the names Lauria." And with that she walked off... and quite a nice walk she had to...

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." What the hell noise was that? Sounded like someon turning on a motorized vehicle... I turned around to see that the Mithra girl was glaring at me and the noise was coming from her as well. "Haviiing fuuuuun?" She asked with a false cheeryness and a very thinly veiled threat. About a dozen come backs came to mind, but considering that my challenger was both feline AND female, angering her further would likely reduce my life expectancy to something less than nano-seconds.

"Erm, heheheh, hehehehe..." I sunk into my seat and pinned my eyes to the ground.

"Now now, children, if you don't settle down we'll leave this instant." said Silver in a mocking parental voice. the Mithra immediatly assumed a "childish pounty mode and grabbed his shoulder.

"Ohhh, buuut Ethhhiisss... Arrrren't you gunnna scold him? You saaawww how he was olging that girrrrl." I couldnt believe what I was seeing, were all Mithra girls like this? I found it unlikely but, then, what did I know? I came from an island populated by Humes. Other races were seen on those occsins when trading ships came in but other then that...

"Huh Ethis? What's that?" I asked, it had occurred to me that I was unfamilar with that word. Silver was quick to inform me with that odd amiability of his.

"OH THAT"S RIGHT We haven't given you our names have we? Well, my names Ethis, Ethis Hunter." Silver, who was now Ethis, sayed with good humor.

"And I'mmm Silvie Vensi, I'm a Monk, and a White Mage on the side and... ei? Why am I tellin you all that? Nevr mind, forget what I said." Ooook, so the Mithra girl who was named Silvie Vensi was a liiiiiiiiiiiitle bit off her rocker. What was it about me that attracted such weirdos like Crane flies to a fly zapper?

"So, are you guys a team?" I asked idly, the whole introduction thing had only killed around ten minutes, that left an agonizing 50 more until that delicious glorious food arrived... That is, if my stomache didn't get eaten from the inside out by acidic fluids as it certainly felt right now.

"Huh? Nah, We're just travelin' together thas all." Ethis sayed as he patted Silvie on the shoulder. "She ran into some trouble in a forest nearby, I saved her and promised to lead her to the nearest safe place I could find, this was it, so, here we are." I nodded, that cleared up one thing, but that opened up a new set of questions.

"Ok, so then, what team ARE you on? If any? I mean, it aint exactly normaly for Paladins to travel alone without at least one partner right?" I asked, I'm not so sure I was actually interested in his responses, just noting that they seemed to kill big chunks of time which was good.

"I do have a team actually, in fact, I'm the groups leader. We're called the Radiant Vanguard." This caused me to burst out laughing. That had to be the cheesiest name I'd EVER heard.

"R-radiant Van-guard? Wh-what is that? A-a-ahaha- 'sat some kinda.. hahAHhahhaaaa..." I couldnt think of what to say, I ha been caught so utterly off guard by that name I couldnt even think straight. Ethis didn't seem to take kindly to having his choice of team name ridiculed.

"I'll have you know we're famous all across Vana'diel. Our purpose is to bring hope and insiration to others by turning back the shadowy forces that would destroy the peace we've known for almost 30 years now." He had quite the displeased mug plastered on his face as he said this, which didn't help his case all that much. Silvie, I noticed, had had to take a monumental effort not to burst out laughing as well.

"Ok ok, so then, where's this team of your's now? You get seperated from 'em?" I asked the final question that had bugged my mind.

"You could say that-" He said with an uncharacteristically somber tone, he cast his eyes down on toward the table and opened his mouth to speak again... But before he could a glorious and familar scent filled my nostrils. I turned to see Lauria heading Our way, seemingly having an effort trying to carry two trays with her, while one other tray was carried behind her by another waiter.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! GLORIOUS WONDEROUS FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD EATEAEAEAEATEEAT YAYHHAHAHAH!" Both me and Silvie had risen from our seats to chant the song of hunger, the fact that we both happenned to use the exact same lyrics was lst on me because at that moment all I could think of was consuming all that delcious delictable good ness that Lauria was delivering unto us.

She gave us both an 'are you insane' look. As did most of the other occupants of the Eatery... but who cared? I certainly didn't. The two of us sat back down giddily, barely able to contain ourselves when Lauria set those plates down in front of us. Quickly withdrawing her hand each tiem as though fearful she might lose it in the onslaught that occurred each time a plate was set down. Finally she managed to place the last plate down and fled before she became a causalty of our ravenous desires.

Ethis, for his part, was back in characterand then some, he was tearing into his food with the same if not greater ferocity them me and Silvie were tearing into ours. Even with how fast we were eating, in the end it took us an hour to finish it all. We all sat back an patted our bellies, sighing well contented sighs and simply sitting there, starin' off into space... then, quite suddenly...

"Welllp, I'd better get goin, my comrades aint gunna find th'mleves after all." said Ethis as he rose from the table, threw his share of money and tip onto it, and headed for the door.

"Hey wha? Yourrrr leaving?" Silvie asked with a pouty face.

"I gotta go, Silvie, 'sides, your safe here now, you need to experience this lifstyle on your own, partnering up with me at this point would just tie you down, adventuring is all about having fun." He paused and looked at her for a second, then at me. My eyes widened as I saw something click in his head. Ohhhhhhh no, no he wasnt!

"Why don't you go adventurin' with Carlin? I think the two of you are around the same skill level, and you seem to have a good dynamic goin' thas important when your adventuring with a group. Well good luck! Mebee we'll see each other again some day!" And with that the paladin known as Ethis Huntr left the eatery, and, for all I knew, my life. Suprisingly, I felt bad about this, I usually didn' get attatched to people who weren't family, and especially no as much as this in such a short amount of time, it had felt like the three of us had always been good friends.

But oh well, now he was gone. I got up, and also threw my share of money+tip on the table and headed for the exit. "Hey waiiiiiiiiit." shouted Silvie as I was about to open the door. She leapt over the table and in that single bound landed in front of me. "You wereen't just gunna leave me herrre werrre you?" she asked with a tone of childish innocence.

I stood there for a moment and considered. Did I want to leave her here? Well, on the one and she had become something of a friend, and Ethis had guessed that we'd go well together, him being a Paladin, and one who was a leader of what he made out to be some well seasoned adventurers, I figured I should trust in his jugement in the companion selection department. But n the other hand, I still wasn't sure I wanted to leave Bastok.

And I was more then certain that while Silvie had been in need of rescue earlier. She would no doubt be looking to go out adventuring again as soon as she'd taken care of business in town. I shrugged and looked at her. Hell, I had no real justification for not going on an adventure or two, what could it hurt to do that adventurin' with a good comrade? "Course not sweetie."

"Rrrrrrrrr, you just watch yourrrrrrself misterrrr perverrrrt." She growled, but this time it wasn't quite as threatening.

The two of us exited the eatery and headed down to the markets.

A/N wow, heh, two chapters in one day... almost, new reconrd, Yay me! please R & R (special thanks to Vivli for giving this story its first r& r!)


	5. Chapter 5: The Quest for a Quest

Chapter 5: The Quest for a Quest

When we got back down to the Bastok Markets the two of us wasted no time acquiring provisions...Mind you, really we didn't yet have any idea what we were preparing FOR. Fortunately, I had sufficient funds from the various odd jobs I'd pulled to be able to afford what I felt was a decent starting lineup of adventuring items. Silvie was also able to acquire a considerable sum from the many pieces of odd-junk that she'd managed to scalp off of whatever creatures she'd encountered before being brought here to Bastok. She used her funds to also purchase a variety of items. It was during this process of preparation that I gained knowledge of something I had not been aware of previously.

Red Mages were not liked all that much. This became apparent when, on several occasions, Silvie attempted to solicit the attentions of a potential "party member". Becoming absolutely ecstatic each time she spotted a potential prospect ("OOH OOH OOH! Therrrress a Warrriorrr! Maybe he'll join us!" And then being utterly crushed when the prospect turned down her offer as soon as she mentioned me, and my profession. ("RRrr, those jerrrrks! What nerrrrve! Doesn't anybody know how to have fun anymorrre?") So in the end, by the time we got all our stuff together, it was still just me and her.

It seemed people did not like the idea of someone who was a "jack-of-all-trades" preferring only those who adhered to specialized professions. Many of them we're rather lacking in courtesy as well, sure some of them turned down the offer politely, either saying they had to go, they were in a party already or that they had something to do. But most of them were downright nasty, going so far as to pelt us with vulgar insults and then walking off.

As far as I was concerned… well, honestly I couldn't've cared less. I mean, sure we intended to go on an adventure and all but seeing as I already encompassed all three necessary components of a successful part, and was already comfortable in my particular profession I saw no reason to go out of our way to collect additional members for our party. I attempted to console Silvie with these facts, meager empathy skills notwithstanding.

"Hey c'mon Silvie, look'at'it this way. I already encompass warrior black mage and white mage to an extent, why bother goin' after additional people? We'll be able to split up more loot between the two of us by the time we're done!" I tried to make my voice as enthusiastic as possible. At first I met with meager success but little by little she came around. And we…rather I… was finally able to get on with life. However, now that that had been decided, there was another, similar, but more urgent problem.

We couldn't find a job... No matter who we went to, no matter who we asked, no one needed anything done; from the old lady who needed someone to collect some groceries for her, to the guy who needed that ultra rare something or other. Every single potential job we came across had already been taken up by someone else. While I preferred to keep my frustrated musings to myself, Silvie, apparently, did not have quite the level of self control necessary to do the same.

"GUNAYAHAMAYANAAAAAAAAAAA!" Apparently, she felt it was necessary to bring the attention of all Bastok to our plight, as well as a few of the neighboring regions as well. "WHAT KINDA WORRRLD ARRE WE LIVIN' IN WHEN A COUPLA ADVENTURRRRERRRS CAN'T EVEN GET ONE KRRRRAKEN JOOOOOOB!" She had to raised fists in the air, waving both of them up and down frantically as though attempting to take flight. Fearing that that was exactly what would happen I placed my hands on her shoulders and attempted to calm her down.

This, unfortunately, caused her to revert to "pouty-sobby" mode. She turned around and looked up toward me. "WH-WHAT ARRRRE WE GUNNNA DOOOO? I DUN WANNA GO BACK OUT THERRRE WITHOUT A RRREASON!" She moaned pitifully. I had no idea how to respond, thankfully, I didn't have to.

"Ey, yous two say yer inneed ova job?" Oh gee, no whatever gave him that idea? The two of us turned to see who had spoken. It was one of the Metalworks engineers, he looked like he had either been on break or was off duty. Before he could continue to talk however Silvie bolted forward, grasped him by both shoulders, and began to shake him furiously, beggin him to affirm our desire.

"YES YES YES! PLEAS TELL US YOU HAVE A JOB FOR US PLEASE WE'LL DO ANYTHING!(wellnotTHATImean-thetwoofusarrredesperraebutnotTHATdesperrrateat-leastIMnot)." Before I could stop her she relented slightly, but still wobbled him abit, which was probably a good thing, as I was pretty sure that if she let the guy go at that moment he would've either collapsed to the floor or been taken by nausea.

Despite his condition, he managed to aquiese to Silvie's….request. "I-if yer l-lookin' fer a job I su'j-jest you head un'u-hulp to the M-metalworks. Old Man Cid's bo-houut to declare one now, it's ona d-heem missions fer the republic. If yeh wanna gu--huuud job, you'll not find any better then the one he's pres-hen-entin' now." It was something of a surprise that the man was able to get even that much out considering his current state.

However, as soon as Silvie let go of him he slumped away, and when she came up to me with a wide-eyed bushy-tailed look on her face I couldn't help but catch her excitement.Silvie and I didn't waste another moment, we bolted off for the Metalworks, leaving many a confused on-looker behind. We ran all the way from Port Bastok, through the Bastok Markets, and finally charged up the stairs to the Metalworks. Panting, the two of us attempted to walk further into the Metalworks but, were not able to as currently.

_fwump _

_"Ey watch it!"_

_"Back yes up!"_

There was almost no room to move. Any step in one direction or another resulted in us bumping into one adventurer or another. I saw that there was some sort of podium set up toward the middle of the the Metalworks square, and atop it was set various... contraptions. What puposes they would serve in the course of Old Man Cid delivering his speech I did not know. But I figured, if he was gunna be speaking from there, best to be as close as possible to the center right?

I informed Silvie of this and the two of us managed together, to squeeze worm, and edge our way through the crowd to get to the center stage. When we got there, we we're just in time to see Old Man Cid himself heading up the steps toward a particular piece of equipment in the center, long and thin, ending in a small sphere at the top. I had no idea what he intended to do with that. As he approache, a great cheer rose from the crowd. Clearly most of those present new Cid's reputation and revered him for it.

I, on the other, hand, was somewhat usettled. I had never seen Old Man Cid before. All I had heard was that he was long past his prime. Hell, his prime was during the second rise of the Shadow Lord, and that whole shindig went down nearly 30 years ago. I had to wonder what had been hatched in this Old codgers mind. With his long white beard and short smooth walking. I felt certain that whatever he had in mind wasn't gunna be something all too sane in the making...

And then, with the crowds cheers dying down, Old Man Cid stepped forward toward the device, and began to speak...

A/N: Due to certain unfortunate incidents, the original content of this chapter was lost in the abyss of what is known as the "school computer deletion of all saved files" policy. I was unable to recover the original and was thus forced to write the chapter all over again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the previous ones even though some of the original spirit was lost. and as always, thnx for all R&Rs!


	6. Chapter 6: Comin' Together

Chapter 6: Comin' Together

"Ahem... Hello One and All!" Old Man Cid spoke into the contraption on the stage, and suddenly his voice also came out over the other contraptions on the stage producing an effect that made me feel it was perhap erroneous to have attempted to get as close to the stage as possible. "Esteemed Adventurers and citizens of BastoK! It is my great pleasure to call you hear today to fullfill perhaps the greatest mission undertaken by any nation in all of time!" Geez, talk about super over-dramatic power. What the hell kinda job could he possibly be announcing that it required this much theatrics?

"As you well know, Bastok is the center of technological revolutions. From this nation were born the wonders that allowed us to conquer the lands, to master the seas, and to rule the skies. In effect, the four great nations now have power over three of the great frontiers." What WAS this guy goin on about? werent those three frontiers the ONLY three? What else was there, excpet perhaps in the old codgers own messed up head?

"However... There is one frontier we have never conquered, but we have grazed it, ever so lightly." Suddenly, he bent back, perhaps a little farhter then a man of his age should have, and held his arms up in the air. "The frontier I speak of is of course... SPACE!" If he was expecting a big reaction for this, he didn't get one. Well, not at first, suddenly there was a lot of muttering among the crowd, most of it either confused, or angry(perhaps bcause they thought they'd wasted their time?). Whatever the case, Old Man Cid sure semed to have amazed himself... He didn't seem all to anxious to get out of the position he'd assumed...

"Err...yes... if one of you fellows could please..." One of the engineer workers stepped forward from behind him and pushed him forward so he was standing upright again and could lean on his cane. "oooh oooh owwww... thas gunna crick in the mornring... hwoo hwoooo..." One of the engineers stepped forward and whispered in Old Man Cid's ear. "Oooh, Oooh, yes, the speech! Ahem!" He brought the sound amplifying device forward to himself again.

"This mission, should you so choose to accept it. Is to clear out, once and for all, the regions of South Gustaberg, North Gustaberg and Dangruf Wadi. These areas must be cleared of the Beastman menace in order to establish the Port which will serve as the testing ground for new space faring technology. Your reward will be based on nthe number and type of Beastmen you defeat, SO DON"T HOLD BACK! The time has come for Bastok to stake it's claim as the mightiest nation, and the success of this mission shall determine who controls the final frontier for long to come!" He went on for a little while longer, going on about how glorious this would be for the nation of Bastok, but I had stopped paying attention after he described mission success requirements and rewards.

I had read somewhere that at one point the three areas that Old Man Cid described were home to some of the weakest monsters around, but in the past five years the relative might of the creatures there had increased signifigantly, in terms of raw numbers, it was estimated that the average creature was at level 20 or above. No problem for me of course, but considering what it had been 30 years ago, it was a helluva big turn-over. Anyway, I looked over at Silvie to see what she thought, if her face was any indication, she was all out for this.

She looked at me with eyes aglittter. "OOOOH OOOH OHH THIS IS AWESOME! IT'S A GOOD THING NO ONE ELSE NEEDED A JOB DONE ORRR WE'DUV MISSED OUT ON THIS" I laughed, my own sentiments were the same. And since there were just two of us, that meant more loot between the two. Well it might've if not for what happenned mere moments adfter we began to set out to leave.

"Heyyyyy it's you guys!" A familar plus-chested waitress, decked out in Black mage gear, came bouncing toward us. With her was a giant mountain of Galka, decked out in basic Paladin gear. Needless to say, the pair had my full attentions, much to Silvie's increasingly familiar irritation. Considering the way our last encounter went, I was a little trepidatious about this encounter.

"Err... heya. Howsit goin?" I said nonchalantly, trying my best to sound sorta like I didn't remember who she was. Unfortunatly, any chance of that was destroyed by Silive's next comment.

"HMPH, How can you great so nice and sweet like after the last time youy two met his 'eye-conotact' didn't extend above you'r shoulders?" She sounded quite angry, as though Lauria's sudden appearance was an intrusion of some sort, a rahter rude one. Lauria, as far as I could tell, thought nothing of it.

"Oh pshaw! Ye get used to that when yera waitress, nuthin to be all strung up about, sides'" she struck a pose. "I AM a rather fine model of femininity, if I do say so myself." It sounded like a joke, but I was more then certain that Lauria didn't mean it as such. Silvie at this point looked like her head might explode with rage. Thinking I knew the reason I decided to try to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.

"Aw c'mon Silvie, chill out alright? Yer not in any way lacking in the feminine department either, if I do say so myself." Remember how I suggest earlier that my intention was to defuse ther situation? Well, to put it simply, it didn't work.

"HWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I was set upon by a feral female demon of destruction formerly known as Silvie. In the scuffle I was too slow to defend myself. And thus by the time it was over. I was very much in need of medical attention. Which Lauria more the readily gave. Apparently she had had some White Mage training along with her Black Magic skills.

The Galka guy spoke up at that moment. "Ahem, anyway, we came over to suggest a merging of sorts, two of us, two of you, a four member group has a higher likelyhood of survival in these regions then groups of just two each. I'm Murris, by the way"

I sat and pondered, me and Silvie had been THINKING it would be better to just be the two of us, but... we HAD been seeking addition group memebers earlier. Was there really much harm in accepting their offer? After all, it was more then could have been expected under normal circumstances. I figured what the hell. "Sure, why not.Th'more th'merrier, as they say." And so it was that our little group of two became four. In spite of Silve's grumblings to the contrary.

"Soooooo, uhhhhhhh, where do you guys wanna hit first?" I asked idly when the three of us had left Bastok.

"Whatdoo you mean, "where do we wanna hit first"? Your the team leader, you tell us." said Murris.Whoa whoa wait a minute, WHAT? When did THIS get deicded? And why wasn't -I- informed?

"W-what're you talkin' about? I thought we we're just...you know... a group." Murris shook his head and looked at Lauria with a look of annoyance.

"I toldya these two didn't look competent. WHy oh why must you ALWYAS contradict me in the worst ways?" He almost sounded like a little baby when he talked like that. Lauria's response was to cast stone on him. "HEY OW! WHAT THE H?" He rubbed himself where the rock had hit him.

"Doncha, go tryin to pass off all teh blame on ME YOUR the one who agreed to this." said Lauria with an annoyed tone. Boyoboy did I make a HUGE mistake inviting those two along. Silvie took the opportunity to grab me by the ear and redundantly inform me that she thought similarly.

"I don't BELIVE YOU! You we'rrre saying just a little while beforrrre that we didn't need any extrrras! Now you go and invite a coupla loons like them without a second thought? What's WRRRONG with you?" I might've been able to listen enough to come up with an addequate answer if she hand't spoken in such a shrill whisper of hiss that my ear was throbbing.

"Whatever with all yer gibberish lady, your the one who was all upset before when we couldn't find nobody, figured you'd feel better to have at least two additional members in our group. Her response was a simple Hmph and she looked away from me. That's when Murris decided to hold us up yet again with something else.

"This is no good, we have to decide on a leader if we're goin to work together. I say give it the old Bastok method. All those in favor of Red-boy as leader raise your hand and say I." Before I could say anything to the contrary, threee hands we're in the air. Lauria's, Silvie's and Murris's. A collective shout of "I" rang through the dreary landscape around us.

"Hey, hey whata minute thats not fair! I never got to vote! I DEMAND A RECOUNT" Okay, so demanding a recount wasn't exactly very pointful(yeah I know it aint a word eat me, I'm pissed.) But things like that never stopped me before. "AND MY NAME ISN"T RED-BOY IT'S CARLIN THE RED! Murris merely chuckled at my outburst.

"It's already three against one, red-boy, your vote's a moot point, your leader, deal with it." He chuckled some more. Luaira and Silvie, for what seemked like one brief moment, shared what seemed like a sisterhood. Then, remembering who eachother were, they hastily removed themselves from eachothers presence. And so it was, that I, Carlin the Red, became leader. There was just one more matter to be dealt with. Silvie was the one to bring it up.

"Hey, since we're a team and all we should like, think up a name for oursleves." They all loked between each other and started talking.

"How about, the Mage Knights?" Lauria suggested brightly. the other two shook their heads. Murris suggested the next one.

"What about... The Light Warriors?" The two of them stared in stunned silence at him for a moment, as though deep in thought about the prospect, I didn't know what to think...I guess it had a nice ring to it...

"MMM, nah, How about, the Radiant Adventuers?" Silvie suggested excitedly, I pointed out that part of the name was already taken, her response was to stick her tounge out at me. "Alright mister leader man why don't YOU try coming up with a name, then?" I shook my head but agreed, grudingly, to think of one, meanwhile the three of them kept spounting off more and more ridiculous ideas for a team name.

"Radical, Dreamers..." Lauria.

"Rave Masters" Silvie.

"Urameshi" Murris.

"How about the Red Wings?" I suggested finally. I had heard the term in a story book once, in reference to some sort of air force lead by a Dark Knight...The three of them stared at me for a long time. then...

"Heh, heheheh, hey that's pretty good, I like it, wings of blood, like birds of prey, good idea red-boy." Of course, that was Murris.

"Heyyy, yeah, I likey, nice one Carly." That was Lauria.

"Eh, I guess it's alrrright." Silvie.

Glad to have it over with, I stood up. "Right then, it's agreed, from now on We're the Red Wings. Now then, as leader, I say we shall head for Sotuhern Gustabarg. And so it was decided where would be the place where the Red Wings made their first decent.

**A/N: This chapter was somewhat harder then the previous ones to write cuz there was a lot more dialouge then ever before. I hope You enjoyed, it. And as for the new name of our group? It took me awhile, but that's the one I decided to settle on, hope you liked it, and is usual, please be so kind as to grace me with your R&R's thnx!**


	7. Chapter 7: Doin' the Adventurin' Thing

Chapter 7: Doin' The Adventurin' Thing

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I shouted out as I whacked a Quadav foolish enough to be milling about in my line of sight upside the head with an Enthunderized Dagger.. We had decided that along with helping to clear out South Gustaberg we would also kill everything along the way so we could get experienced working together as a team and collect a kings ransom in odd-junk to sell off at the auction house when we got back to Bastok. Well, thus far, we'd managed to get some decent headway in ONE of those goals...

"KYAAAAAA CARRRRLIN ARRRE YOU INSANE!" That is... getting odd-junk.

"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't know those other Qudav would get pissed too!" I shouted as the two of us ran as fast as we could, Murris trailing behind us but managing to stay at least a few feet ahead of the Quadav."

"D-Damn you Red-Boy! Why did you have to go and create a Quadav-train? You Just HAD to get ONE MORE QUADAV didn't you?" Murris shouted in that whiney-pissy tone of his. I couldn't help wondering how it was that a Galka could manage such a voice, but Murris did it. Anyway, as we ran Lauria desperatly cast Thunder Spells on the pursuing Quadav. Deciding I was tired of being yelled at, I stopped and let the others run ahead of me. I turned back to the Quadav and started slashing away with my dagger, dancing around the Quadav and just barely managing to dodge the brunt of their attacks against me.

Silvie and Murris were well enough away by the time they realized that I was no longer running with them. They both turned back to me and shouted. "WHAT THE H ARE YOU DOIN ARE YOU INSANE?" I suppose I was, but that didn't explain the Quadav dropping before me like flies now did it? Finally, the combination of Lauria's Thunder spells and my own attacks, which I supplemented with a technique or two, finished off the Quadav train. Of course, if not for the "softening up" they'd gone through earlier before I accidental up-sided a particularly aggressive Quadav, I probably WOULD'NT have had as easy a time against them. Well, actually in truth, it hadn't been all that easy to begin with. It seemed we were a bit light in the offensive department, I had thought that my own skills would be more then sufficient but I was drastically mistaken.

Even with Lauria casting with me, it had drained us just to soften up the mob of Quadav's we'd gotten on our tails. Murris and Silvie, to their credit, held out for as long as possible against them, but when the magic began to tap out we had decided it was time to run like hell, so we did, I think I read somewhere that Paladin's and Warriros are meant to die for the good of a team... But I wasn't quite keen on making such a drastic choice, I mean really, this isn't a game for Altana's sake, sure we could find someone with a good Raise skill but honestly... I dunno it doesn't feel right consigning one of us to death just because of one little screw up. In all likelihood I wasn't cut-out for this whole leadership thing.

But then, I couldn't exactly complain, all we needed was a bit more of an offensive edge. But for now, a little bit of rest. I collapsed to the ground, scooting away from the Quadav as their stench when electrified to a crisp was something less then appetizing. Murris and Silvie fell to the ground as well, all three of us we're breathing heavily, Luaria was the only one who wasn't in a state of utter exhaustion but that was because she didn't have to run, she'd stayed at a distance. Each of us healed ourselves with what magic we could when we recovered enough of our spirit. Come to think of it, that's probably one of the reasons we weren't the best with offensive, our party seemed a bit too tilted toward white magic, not a class known for raw offensive power.

But at this point there was naught to be done about it, I wasn't keen on heading back to Bastok in order to regroup into a more formidable force. We'd have to make up for our weakness with superior strategy, not one of my strong points to any great extent, but again, I wasn't goin' back to Bastok when the rewards lay ahead.

When we were rested to full I ordered the group up and we continued on our way to South Gustaberg. The barren landscape wasn't what one could call a cheery background to our small group. The sandy brown visage didn't do well to help calm one after a tense fight. Therefore, it wasn't exactly the best time to have something come out and surprise us.

"HORYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Which was exactly what happened; As a Thief who apparently had considerable warrior training came down on us from a Cliffside wielding a Centurion's Axe. I leapt back just as the axe would have cleaved me in two…. What, you thought I would try to block that thing with my dagger? Yeah right… like you'd react any differently.

The thief wielding the great axe rose to his feet and brought his great axe back into position for another strike. I could see at this point that he was a typical Elvaan; Tall but lean and muscular. His hair was short, and red hanging off his head to about an inch below his eyes, clearly a poorly done hack job of a hair cut. His eyes were a strange sort of blue. They looked rather… disturbed… soulless.

Speaking of… his great axe was emitting some kind of slight black energy, not an overload, more of a tint then anything, but a highly noticeable one. "Who the hell are you?" I demanded as I pulled out my dagger and assumed a fighting stance. My fellow Red Wings pulled their own weapons out and did the same.

"Hmph, sorry, I didn't look before I leapt, I thought, from the sound of your walking, that you might be Quadav." He didn't sound the least bit sorry; in fact, the only thing I could detect was disappointment. "As an apology let me offer you some advice," a cold grin spread across his face. "Stay out of my way, the Quadav here are mine and mine alone."

Who the hell did this guy think he was? "Like hell you Grade-A, Hole! We're gunna stake our share of the reward and there's nuthin yer gunna do 'bout it, got it?" I found myself entering another of those rare moments of pure emotion. And strangely, I was liking it. I felt more leadery when I was like this.

"Huh-ha! Oh THAT? I have no interest in that nonsense, if I need money, I can always just steal it. I'm out here for a far… greater… reward…" The Thief spun his axe around and clasped it back to the holster on his back. "Anyway, since you idiots amused me I'll let you go without robbing you blind, but remember what I said, stay outta my way, or you'll regret it." And with one well timed leap he disappeared to Cliffside from whence he came.

"Ooooooooookayyyyyy, anyone wanna hazard a guess what that was about?" asked Lauria with a mixture of sarcasm and WTFedness.

"If I had to I'd say we were threatened by a scrawny runt who didn't know his place." Said Murris haughtily, I guess he didn't like the idea of someone smaller then him not being intimidated by his presense.

"Awww, is poorrrrr Murrrrrrry's ego balloon go pop?" Silvie teased. Murris didn't look pleased.

"Hmph." Was his only response. A weak one at that.

"Right right let's just keep going forward shall we? South Gustaberg aint gunna be a gold mine forever ya know." I said with authority, I was still on an adrenaline high from the encounter with the thief.

"Rrrrrr, people got alotta nerrrve arrround herrre." Grumbled Silvie irritably.

With that we made our through the barren valley and at last we arrived at our destination. South Gustaberg was little more then two footsteps before us.

"Heh, the Red Wings have descended. Let's find our prey." I charged into the valley with dagger in hand, as did my comrades. It was time to get busy.


	8. Chapter 8: Schizo Schism

Chapter 8: Schizo Schism

When we entered into South Gustaberg it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. The corpses of monsters and Beastmen littered the terrain, but there were no parties to be seen, not one warrior, not one mage. N-o-t-h-i-n-g. "Ooooooook, anyone got an explanation for what we're seein' here? Cuz I'm drawin blanks right now." I said truthfully.

"Perhaps this place was already fully purged and all the parties that were here have moved on elsewhere. Altana knows we got held up plenty on the way here." Murris offered helpfully. I nodded in agreement. But then immediately shook my head when I got close to one of the corpses, a Quadav. It was still bleeding, slight moans escaping from its throat but it was short lived. There were others too, Goblins.

"Anyone wanna offer an explanation why these guys ain't showin' any signs of a fight?" asked Lauria in a voice tinged with fear. I did not understand her meaning at first until I inspected the wounds of the corpses further. There were indeed, no battle scars anywhere on their bodies, no sign of magical assault of of being struck anywhere but in the one wounded area. It was as if something had just come in and given a single fatal stroke to each beast that had felled it without a fight.

"Morrre to the point. What kinda sumthin' is so strrrrong that it can kill a Quadav in one blow?" Again, an observation I'd failed to make (I suck at this). Even the one wound on each creature was just that, one strike, no signs of repeated attacks to the same location. Slowly, the rusty gears in that atrophied organ within my skull began aturnin' and suddenly it all came together.

"That thief, he told us "not to get in his way", remember? Said he was after some great reward…" I said simply, standing up straight from the last corpse I'd examined. "Well, anyway, ain't nuthin' goin on here, what's say we head back up to Bastok, regroup, and come on back down to one of the other areas." To say that I was unanimously opposed would be quite the understatement,

"No way in blitty H. We've wasted enough time trying to get HERE." said Murris, finally managing to show irritation without sounding whinny. Who knows how skimpy the pickings will be if we take the time to go back and regroup. I saw we continue forward to North Gustaberg and-" whatever else he had to suggest was lost to history as Lauria took the time to interject.

"HEYHEYHEY! Wait Just A MINUTE! YOU TWO ARE TALKING LIKE YOU PLAN ON IGNORING THIS WHOLE SITUATION, WE SHOULD REPORT THIS TO THE AUTHORITIES AT BASTOK, THEY NEED TO KNOW!" geez, drama queen much? More like drama empress, but I digress.

"What? Go back to Bastok and tell them we found a massive number of dead beastmen in South Gustaberg? Something tells me they AREN'T gunna find that to be all that surprising. I mean, in case you've forgotten, the mission objective is to annihilate every last beastman in the three defined areas." I didn't see how this was our problem, sure a whole buncha creatures were dead but that was what Bastok wanted, I doubted they cared much how it was done so long as it got done.

"B-b-b-b-b-b-ut this is too strange, I MEAN COME ON! YOU'RE TELLIN ME SEEING QUADAV TAKEN OUT WITH JUST ONE BLOW DOESN"T EVEN CAUSE YOU TO BAT AN EYE? THIS THIEF GUY COULD BE DANGEROUS! WHAT IF HE'S SOME HARBRINGER OF DESTRUCTION OR SOMETHING?" Oh for Altana's sake now she was just talking like a raving lunatic.

"Would you calm the H down already? Just because some thief claims he after power doens't mean he's a harbringer of destruction. Seriously, does the term "power-monger" ring a bell? Some guys just like to fight and fight and fight, it's their thing, that doesn't make them "harby... whatever the H that thing you called him." I said with finality. I wasn't about to let someone else dictate the path of my life, even if this thief guy was some hoby destro, what business was it of mine? That was Ethis's thing, the whole hero deal, he seemed pretty tough, and apparently had equally tough allies, why not let him deal with it? He'd find out eventually right? "The Red Wings are no band of viglante's, we're hunters, pure and simple, we stalk that we may consume. We've got no business prowling another hunters territory."

Lauria looked indigninant but said nuthing further, Murris seemed to approve, Silvie looked relieved. "And herrrre I thought we werrrre gunna get drrrragged into sumthin wayyy overrr ourrrr heads, no point rrrriisking ourrr necks when therrres no payoff right?" Myself and Murris nodded. Lauria seemed appoplectic.

"I don't believe this, I really don't, I don't think I can be a member of this party anymore, come on Murris, let's go." she spoke in a voice so low I could barely hear it, though that didn't disguise the flagrant anger in each of her words. Geez, what was she getting so worked up about,it wasn't like she had some personal stake in whatever was going on. Murris refused to listen.

"I ain't goin nowheres, you wanna go off on anuther of yer holy rollin tangents go right ahead, I'm here for the rewards and I ain't leavin till I get a fair - OUCH WILL YOU STOP THAT YOU INFERNAL WOMAN?" Lauria had shut him up by casting a stone spell on his head...again. I kinda got the feeling these two didn't get along all that much despite their apparent togetherness. I decided to ignore it however, and turned to head up North, we'd been delayed enough. I started walking. Deciding to also ignore that sudden, unexplanied, sharp pain in my head and chest, like a needle through my heart... yeah, too many eggs for breakfast, that wwas it, gotta start getting on a diet yeah... Silvie folloqwed close behind.

"You comin'?" I heard Murris ask. Didn't need explanation who that was directed at.

"Yeah, yeah fine, I wouldn't be able to do anything on my own anyway." she said almsot defeatedly.

In that moment, it simmed that the small flicker that was the flame of the Red Wings might just blow out. However, by the time we made it to North Gustaberg, grivances had disappeared in the exictement of new battles to be had, if South Gustaberg had nothing, North Gustaberg had way way wayyyy tooo much. Qudav and Goblins we're present in incredible numbers, no doubt the result of crafty "pulling" on the part of some group leaders. Being en mass like that made it easy to chain spell large numbers of Quadav and Golbins into submission. It was rather suprising, I had thought that the teams would compete AGAINST one another for greater booty, but then again, the crowd was more then likely predominantly made up of Bastokers, if that was the case, it wouldn't be suprising that they had put rivalries aside in the name of greater fortune.

Needless to say, to claim that the fighting was chatoic was an understatemtn worthy of,... some kinda reward that would go to understatments. It was a total war zone, spells flying everywhere, emrgin and converging as one on various beastmen, some hysterical laughter here and there at the sheer joy that was collective destruction of a common enemy. You've probably figured it out by now, but I was not immune to this excitement blended with ecstatic fear. I foundd myself leaping into frey after frey, Enthunderized dagger in hand, dia spell in the other. I had Murris go around wacking as many Quadav with his big sword as posssible and dragging them back toward Lauria and me. Silvie in the meanwhilee sfotened them up with her fists as they came, each strike being far too quick for them to even notcie that they'd been struck. By the time they got to Lauria and me they didn't have a chance as I attacked with my dagger and she pelted them with Thunder spells.

"HHAAHAHAHAAAAAA SUMBODY STOP ME! OWWWWWWWWWWUUUUUUUU!" Yes, I howled, is there I problem with that? I didn't think so. Anyway, we had som much fun that I didn't even have time to acknowledge that weird pain in my head and chest, or the weird sounds that now went along with it, all of it lost to the joyous cacaphony of battle that was raging all around me.

_... want my reward..._

_...In time..._

_...You have fullfilled the pact..._

_... Dark Knight..._

_... As promised..._

... power beyond...

...shortly...

...come...

By the time the battle had ended, we were all exhausted, but the adrenaline rush still coursed through us, for a time, ti felt as though we, the Red Wings, were of a single pulse, single life. The excitement of the battle had completely drained us of energy. The other parties in North Gustaberg did not seem to share this problem of exhaustion to the same extent that we had, but then, most of them were probably more "professionally" set up then we were. So what? All it meant was a little more challenge for us and a little more break time, who would complain about that? No one in their right mind that's who.

..._To the mountains in Dangruf Wadi_...

..._shall feast_...

..._adventurers_...

..._even greater power_...

"Anybody got sumthin for headaches?" I asked frustratedly, that weird pain in my head and chest refused to go away, in fact, it was getting worse, hell, it was beginning to sound like WORDS now. Maybe I was goin insane? Enough had certainly happenned to me in a short enough amount of time to warrent that analysis, but I had a weird feeling that... it was just a damn headache that refused to shut up and go away, that's all.

"Eh? headache medicine? Hold on, might got sumthin..." Lauria sifted through her own travel pouch for a short while before producing a small bottle of Remedy potion. She tossed it over to me and I caught it, drinking the contents. It seemed to work, at least somewhat, the pain was gone, but the weird noise was still there, but muted, like someone talkin through a thick piece of cloth. "Alright, let's get goin, Dangruf Wadi ain't gunna be chocie pickings for long." Is said a I stood up, the others did the same, and together we headed off for Dangruf Wadi...

Except we didn't.

"...ru..."

A voice from somewhere among the corpses of beastmen Quadav and Golbins... one of them still breathing? not surpsing, in all that chaos it was bound to happen.

"...aru..."

Again that noise, muted, like it was under something thick... like a rock. The four of us approached one of the Quadav, as we did, the sound got louder, ostensibly, that should mean we were getting closer to the source of the sound. "Murris, go see if that things still alive." He suddenly whirled on me like I was mad.

"What's that all of a sudden? Are we not all approaching it as one." back to good old whiny Murris.

"Someone seems to be forgetting Who's the duly elected leader here. Besides, your a Paladin, it's your job to take the lead." Murris grumbled as he approached the Quadav carefully. He unsheathed his sowrd and poked at it. No response, he poked at it again, harder this time.

"Aru..." What the hell was that noise it kept making? weird, I'd never heard a Qudav make that kind of noise. It sounded almost childish. This time Murris got bold, went up to the Quadav, and kicked it.

"-ARU!" Aru? what the H was taru supposed to mean? and why was this Quadav squeeking it in that weird tone? It sounded as though the Quadav had felt it that time though. Murris seemed to agree, so he kicked it again, harder.

"-TARU" Before I could make heads or tales of that last sound, Silvie suddenly rushed forward and grabbed the Qudav, she seemed on the edge of tears.

"OHNOHNONHONO!" Why was she getting so worked up over a dead Quadav? it was lost on me, she hastily turned it over, so that it lay on its back, revealing beneath it, a tiny child-like form.

"Arrrre you okay little guy? Yourrr not hurrrrt arrrre you?" she asked, her tone had changed radically from what I was used to. She sounded almos motherly, as if the creature she was cradling was her very own child.

"Little-wittle guy-taru? I'm older-wolder then you-taru." Okay, the little guy clearly had an attitude several sizes larger then his head. Which I guess wasn't saying much, seeing how shrimp the thing was. He leapt free of Silvie's embrace and did a quick scan of the environment. "Oh no-taru! They didn't even loky-wooky for me-taru!" I shook my head in amusement. The creature ran aroundd in circles, spotuing out angry platitudes about ingrates, crudes, barbarian,s ruffians, screws. It was all too much.

"HAHHHHAAAAAAHHAAHAHAAA Y-you lose-lose your party there or something buddy, ho-ha ho-haaahahahaa!" I found myself lost in a fit of laguther, the whoel situation was just absurd. The little guy turned toward me with an indignant look.

"I don't getty wetty no respect-aru, no repect-aru at all-taru." WHen I finally got over my laughing fit, I was able to assume a compsed manner, and was approach the little guy seriously.

"Tell you what guy, you'r friends probably went on ahead to Dangruf Wadi, so why don't you team up with us in the mean time? We're the Red Wings, just so you know."

The little guy looked up at me as though pondering. "Red...Wings... why not-aru? Just don't givy-wivy me no disrepect-aru." I nodded my head and knelt down to shake his hand, more of a hand pinch then anything.

"Well, alirghty then, it's a done deal. Glad to be workin with ya." I stood up. "Well, let's head off, don't wanna let you'r friends get too far ahead now do we?" I said amusedly as we once again began to move forward. Suddenly, I remembered that I'd forgotten something important. "By the way, what's your name little guy?"

"My namey-wamey is Curru Wurru."

"Right then, we'll just call ya Curru?" The little guy nodded as we walked. Then I stopped again abrubtly as I remembred ANOTHER important thing.

"By the way... what's yopur job?" The little guy smiled, struck a pose, and declared mightily, well as mightily as a little guy like him could.

"I'M A WHITE MAGE."

"What-aru?"


	9. Preview: The Radiant Vanguard a prequel

**A/N: for those of you who may be fans of the Radiant Vanguard, this is their story, from their first days as adventurers all the way up to their seperation that leads up to "The Advntures of Carlin the Red". As this is a rough draft, some things may change when I get about to actually righting it. Even so, please r&r and tell m what you think!**

Chapter 1: The Warrior from San d'Oria

"Fear is the ultimate weapon of the darkness, conquer it, and the darkness shall flee from you as it would even the small glimmer of a single candle. You may be called Warriors, but in truth YOU ARE DEFENDERS, all here will one day join the ranks of the noble Paladin's the greatest knights of San d'Oria." A gathering of Warriors were standing in the Great Hall, where the overall commander was giving a speech about how they would all one day serve San d'Oria as Paladin's, Holy Knights. To one young silver haired warrior, the proceedings were woefully dull, uninteresting, and unnecessary.

"_Geez, we knew this when we signed up to be trained. Why do they have to reiterate it to us now_?" Fortunately, these thoughts were contained in his head, and he dared not express them openly, lest he shame his father, who had raised him to be a noble warrior from the beginning, and who was himself a distinguished member of the order of Paladins. Instead, he showed the same stalwart front that every other warrior gathered there showed; A single minded purposefulness that to unknowing onlookers would seem like little more then mindless devotion.

"...therefore, let each of you step forward now, take hold of the sword weilded by the Paladin who struck down the Shadow Lord, Velto Ol'orin. And so be knighted as proud warriors of San d'Oria!" And at that point an orator began to call out names, at which point each warrior would go up to the stage on which the speaker stood and take hold of the sword, point it to the sky, and, when it shone, they would return to their former position, blessed by the Holy Spirit...

Once again, the silver haired boy found his attention drifting; almost missing his call when his name was called at last. "Hunter, Ethis, step forward." With calm, self-assured certainty, the young man stepped forward, gold eyes flashing as they flicked over the form of the blade wielded by the hero of the final Shadow War. When he stood before the altar, he stretched out his hand, calmly grasping the blade by its hilt, when he did so; he turned and lifted it up to point toward the sky, and waited patiently for it to shine...

Except it didn't.. The light within the castle dimmed significantly at that moment.

There was a silent but oh so audible tremor of confusion and shock running through the gathered crowds, through the warriors, through the parents, and trainers who had gathered to see their offspring knighted. Ethis could feel himself break out in a cold sweat. He tried to clear his mind, hoping that would achieve something... It didn't.

"Why does the sword not shine?" Ethis heard a whisper from within the crowd.

"Shameful... I'd hate to be that boy's father..." another voice...

Ethis felt a prickle of guilt and anger course through him at these comments, but, knowing full well that acting on them would bring only bitterness and regret, he let the feelings roll away, paying them no heed. At that moment a young elvaan squire came forward and addressed the speech giver. Who knelt down in order to hear the young elvaan whisper in his ear, with a slight smile on his face. The Elvaan rose again to address the crowd.

"Gathered peoples, it appears there was a slight... accident, involving one of the Bastokian contraptions located near here, if you would all be so patient, the problem should be cleared up shortly. Ethis mentally sighed with relief, one of the Bastokian contraptions must have malfunctioned, if that was the case, there was likely smoke billowing out of it that of course, would block the light of day from penetrating the cathedral, and consequently, no nice shiny blade. Ethis didn't dare move his arm from its position though, for fear that that might cost him this lucky break.

Sure enough, the smoke eventually cleared, and as the light brightened once more, the sword in Ethis's hand began to shine. And those gathered clapped and cheered for him. Some praising him for being "Cool under fire"; Others for not backing down in the face of shadows. Ethis knew better then to let it go to his head, but he could not help feeling some pride from all the praise he was getting. He was in such a state of euphoric relief that the remainder of the proceedings became a blur of events...

One year later…


	10. Chapter 9: Bond

Chapter 9: Bond

Anywayy, we made our may up to Dangruf Wadi. By this point I was thinking another Remedy might be due but I opted against asking for one. The weird noises in my head seemed to get clearer the closer we got to Dangruf Wadi, I began to become certain that the noises really _were _voices. Mind you, I still didn't believe that meant anything... other then that I was goin' nuttty. And, bein a leader, I couldn't exactly afford to let my underlings know I was cracked like a vase.

..._now_...

..._destroy_...

..._Beast Men_...

..._power_...

..._Dark Knight_...

Oook, might as well try to make sense of the voices if they felt it so pressing to make sure I heard them. Leseee... some guy was gunna start destroyin stuff... the Beat Men were on his side... annnd. He had the power of a Dark Knight, or, on the other hand, maybe the voice was saying the Beat Men themselves were the target, it was so vaugue that I could hardly tell. Damn, I AM Psycho now, I've reacher stage 2 psychosis, first I hear voices now I'm LISTENING to them... next thing you know you know I'll be...

"HEY Red-Boy! Look where your goin!" Huh? WHa? WHA! My foot connected with a rock embedded in the dirt, unable to right myself, I fell forward and skid slightly. Thankfully, my Red Mage armor protected me from the minor scrapes and brusies that might have occurred, unfortunatly, it didn't protect me from...

"Hehheheheh HEHEHEEHEH, brilliant one there Red-boy, super genius." Murris, taking his usual cheap shot, his voice was strange though, distorted, distant... and why was everything goin wavvy all of a sudden?

"Errrrrrr, Carrrlin? Arrre you okay?" I heard Silvies voice and felt her hand nudge my shoulder, but she too, was distant and fuzzy, even more so then Murris. Lauria and Curru said something too but by now I couldn't even here, nor could I see, or rather, I could see, but not what I should be seeing...

_There, in a dark carvern, there stood two figures, both familiar, but my vision had yet to clear. I tried to stand up, but couldn't. I tried to move, but couldn't. It was as though I were in chains, what was even weirder was the delayed reaction of my...er actions, when I willed myself to do something, it took a full five seconds before it happened, it was frustrating and strangely, I felt a tinge of despair at this inability in the back of my mind._

_"So, you have made a Dark Knight of this thief?" I heard a dep metallic-like echo of voice. I tried to look up, but again t took me five seconds to do so. I was also in an odd position, like I was leaning down, and I couldn't move my arms at all. When I looked up I was able to see the two figures more clearly, but still with that odd fuzz. "I can't let them do this..." Wait a minute... what? I didn't think that. But I heard it in my own head... What the H?_

_"Yes, he came to m seeking power. He looked interesting, so I decided to see if he was worth something, and indeed, he was, I ordered him to annihilate all the Beast Men in Southern Gustaberg, I infused his weapon of choice with my oqn power and told him to do the deed alone, he did, and so I endowed him the gift of the power of a Dark Knight."_

_That one who was talking... tall, tan... I could swear I new that mug from somewhere... if only there was a little more light here..._

_"And what if this thief decides to use this power AGAINST us?" said the other figure, large and hulking, I had no idea who OR what he was. IT was his voice which was mettalicy-echoy._

_"No need to worry about that, his powers are mine, I can seal his power if he decides to turn against us." the tall tan guy said. For some reason I felt like I was on the verge of tears, an odd sensation indeed, since I hadn't shed a tear since I was four._

_"Very well, now, on other business..." I felt a spark of terror as the echo voiced guy turned toward me, looking straight at me with empty light where eyes should be._

_"Ah, yes," the other tall tan guy walked up to me and knelt down, placing a hand next to my face." Suddenly, from this close, I recognized him with all too great a clarity. It was the Elvaan who had attacked my family all that time ago, and taken them from me._

_"Now then, it's time you stopped being stubborn and started helping us... Ol'orin..." _

_WHAT?_

_I felt a shock run through my body, suddenly, the dark vision seemed to zoom away, and for a moment I was lost in shadow, then a glimmer of light opened up somewhere in the distance, distant voices called out to me."Carrrlin! Carrlin! Come on! Wake up! What's wrrrrong with him? I don't underrrrrrstand!" Who the hell was that? Whoever she was she sure had a nice voice.. I wonder what the rest of her was like..._

_"I dunno-taru, he doesn't-aru react-aru to my healy wealy spelly wellys..." The light suddenly got a lot brighter, and I found that I could just make out several forms in front of me, four if I wasn't mistaken._

_"It looks like he's coming to." Another female voice, a bit... heavier then the first, but unmistakably female. Strangely, I found that this voice was not nearly as appealing to my sensibilites as the first..._

When I finally opened my eyes I had to sheild them from the sudden change in brightness, I sat up, suddenly remembering where I was and who I was with. "Oooh, owwww, my heaaaaaaad..." Geez, talk about a real anger, my head felt like it had taken a few slugs from a hefty rock.

"Tsh, that was pathetic, you knocked yerself out just by tripping over a rock? And here I was beginnin' to think you just might be headin' toward bein' a good leader." That was Murris of course, strange, for a slight moment those around me seemed unfamilar. The feeling passed quikcly however, and I remembred who everybody was.

"Murris! Please! This is no time for insults! How are you feeling Carlin? do you need anything?" Lauria asked.

"Yeah, Remedy..." I couldn't get out any more words then that, my head was killing me, and it didn't help that my mind was involutarily trying to make sense of what had just happened. When Lauria handed me the Remedy I gulped it down immeidatly... and gaged..

"-Cough-, geez, what brand is that?" I asked, when I had drunk the thing down. It had tasted, frankly, like the fluids one might find in a septic area.

"Remedy X, guarrenteed to nullify the worst ailments in a flash... of course, it's not exactly an _offical_, brand." said Lauria, she left it up in the air as to what exactly she meant by 'official' but I could hazard a few guesses...

"Anyway let's get goin, Dangruf Wadi... errr, it is still a gold mine right?" I asked timidly, I didn't exactly know how long I'd been out, I hoped it wasn't TOO long...

"Yeah, thankfully, you we're only out for about five minutes..." Whoa what? five, just five? I was certain I had been... in that state... for AT LEAST 20 minutes... at least, that's how it felt. I stood up and rubbed some sore pots out of my body.

"Well, then, we should get moving..." I started to walk off bu was stopped when my arm got grabbed.

"Wait aminute, you werrre out for five whole minutes! You can't be alrrright after being awake for barrely one!" Well this was certainly suprising, Silvie was the last person I'd expect to show any kind of concern for me, not that I minded...

"I'm fine! Really! Come On Sil, we shouldn't dwell on what's happenned, let the past be the past and keep pushing forward! Come on! Dangruf Wadi is ripe for the picking!" Silvie let go of my arm and backed away, puffing her cheeks out with what seemed to be either worry or frustration, I couldn't really tell.

"Ohhh, ohh alrrright, but pay attention wherrrre yourrrr walking at least okay!" I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah yeah, okay already. Let's go..." And so we walked on once again, as we walked though, I couldn't help the nagging feeling that Dangruf Wadi would not be the fun filled place that was Norhtern Gustaberg, nor would it be the empty creepyness of South Gustaberg, what it WOULD be...

Well, we would find that out soon would'nt we?

"Hey Hey! Waity-aqity for me-taru! Doesn't anybody care what I think about this situation?" Oh yeah, almost forgot about the Tarutaru guy... "I tell ya no respect-aru no respect-aru at all!" Something told me that whatever happenned, things were going to get VERY interesting from here onward...


	11. Chapter 10: Flicker to Inferno

Chapter 10: Flicker to Inferno

Well, at least one positive thing was confirmed when we got to Dangruf Wadi. My instincts were improving. When we got there, the landscape was literally littered with Beast Men corpses, but additionally, many of the adventurers we had seen in Norhtern Gustaberg were here too, apparently downed, but strangely, none of them seemed to have been injured... I think "what the H' fits the bill here.

"Heyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa felllllllllllllaaaaaaaaas howw yaaaaaa... ehhhhhhh, neva minnnnn..." Whoa... it was a thief, not the one would seen before, but a hume, and apparently, someone had zapped his mind somewhere off planet, and o say that he looked "unenthused" was akin to saying that... er I can't think of an analogy here... Never mind forget it. Anway, the point was, he was not the only one like that. As we walked through Dangruf Wadi all we saw was the same thing, corpses upon corpses, and adventurers who's minds were in another universe and were about as enthused looking as... an overweight guy forced to do track, THERE HAHAHA! I GOT ONE... what? Oh please, it was just an analogy, take your protest elsewhere.

Finally, that odd sensation known as logical thought progression began to kick in in my head. Seeing as we weren't getting any answers as to what the H happened by just examining the scene, I decided it was best to interrogate the adventurers milling about. I sent everyone off in random directions to be able to do this more quickly. The first person I pulled for interrgation was an elvaan warrior, who, frankly, didn't seem to be quite as affected as all the others were. At least as far as his mind was concerned...

"What the H happenned here?" I asked simply, I wanted to tack more onto the question but despite the guys seeming lack of being affected mentally he most certainly seemed to be just as lacking in charisma as all the other adventurers around here. What the H was goin on?

"Uhuuuu... I dunno really... one minute me an my friends was fighting up some Quadav, next thin' you know everyones minds go bye-bye and everybody suddenly gets alll, whuuuuuuuuuu, and ehhhhhhhhh, an ahhhhhhhhhh..." the sounds he was macking, I assumed, were those indicitave of boredom, more specifically, a lack of charisma.

So let's see, everyone's minds were fried, and along with that the had the enthusiasm of slugs. Sooooooooo what was the connection here? I decided I would see what one of the others had found out so far. The first one I decided to hear from was SIlvie (an entirely arbitrary decision...really!) anf found her among some rather admiring elvaan and hume males... her particular method of "interrogation" left something to be desired, to say the least.

I grabbed her by the ear and pulled her away, much to the chagrin of the male crowd, but fortunatly, they we're too listless to muster up the will to pursue us. "RRRRROWWWWWWW RRRRROWWW LEGGO LEGGGO! RRRRROWWWWW!" She shouted in a hissy fit. I did not do so until we were some distance away from aggressive male humes and elvaan. "Whats youuurrrrrr prrrrroblem! That hurrrt!" I crossed my arms and cocked an eye at her.

"And what exactly was it you were doin over there young lady? We're suppossed to be investigating these people, not seducing them." Silvie looked indignant. She leaned back and shook her hands, in an 'I'm innocent' sorta way...cute... ARGH that didn't mean nuthing hear me?

"I WAS NOT SEDUCING THEM! I WAS JUST...ERrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... PERRRSUADING THEM TO OPEN UP! YEAH THATS IT!" I shook my head. Good to se that she didn't get shaken up easily at least...well, mebeee that was just cuz she had friends now. No telling if she might be quite so cool if she were on her own.

"Riiiight. Anyway, while you were 'persuading' them. Did you manage to find out anything useful?" Silvie looked almost paniced for a moment, as though she'd been caught thrifting something. her face lit up red in the cheeks and she started sturtering like a fish out of water... I know it doens't make sense, just bear with it okay? I'm not good with this whole metaphor thing.

"Ohhh, errrr ummm, they said something about seeing a guy in heavy lookin' armor blowin in and taken out Beast Men left and right, and when that happenned everyone else got zonked out at the same time...I think..." Well, that was certianly helpful...maybe... the despriction was familiar in some way... I knew I had heard or seen it somewhere but WHERE? anyway, I gathered up the other three and essentially they had nothing different to add excelt that the guy in armor could aslo use spells, and who seemed almost impossible to hit through physical means.

"So let's see, we're dealing with a Dark Knight, who can wipe out entire areas of Beast Men on his own, and has a mastery of spells that can be used to totally disable people... anyone got anything against that assesment?" A general nay went through my three allies. "Mkay, anyone wanna hazard a guess who this Dark Knight might be?" I asked. Already pretty sure I knew the answer.

"The only one I can think of is that thief guy, he seemed keen on getting power, and wanting people out of his way, from what I see here, seems to fit him perfectly." Murris said with irritated intelligence. It was clear he didn't like the notion of being shown up as a tough guy. Silvie seized the opportunity an half-second before I could.

"Awwwww, pooorrrr Murrrris's ego's gettin all brrruised, I don't think he can take much morrrre." Murris huffed indiginantly and turned away and crossing his arms with another humph.

"Heh, anyway, yeah, him, it's gotta be, how many people out there would actually attack other adventurers in an informal non-duel setting like this?" Lauria added her own thoughts in, which I accepted as valid arguments.

"THis meany-weeny, bas-taru needs to be put in his placey wacey! We can't justy-wusty let-aru him do as he wants to other adventurers!" I nodded at Curru's assesment, which seemed to make Lauaria rather indignant.

"What happenned to not involving youself in another hunters business?" she asked sarcastically. She certainly seemed rather confident when she thought she'd caught someone in something or whatever the H it was that went through that womans head when she wasn't bein' talked to.

"He's attacked other adventurers, he looses the privilege, the Red Wings cannot let such dishonor stand," I said with authority, I was beginning to get the hang of this whole leader thing. "We're gunna find this Dark Knight thief and teach him a lesson or two about how to be an honorable adventurer, the good old fashioned way." I added slyly. I held out my hand palm down. "Red Wing pledge, you guys with me! I wanna HYA RED WINGS!" At first the others staed at me then, one by one, hands were placed over my own, well, three at least, one had to touch the bottom.

"HYA! RED WINGS!" We all shouted and threw our hands into the air. That felt good, indeed it felt really good, up till now I had felt we we're just a group of people traveling together and adventurin' together, but now, with this, a focused purpose to all shoot for, the Red Wings had become a true team, we had gone from a Flicker, to an Inferno.

And so the Red Wings set off to hunt down their new prey.


	12. Chapter 11: Sweet Deep Darkness

**OOC: I'm very sorry for being so late with tis chapter, as of now I hav a full time job which is eating up my time so I can't update as often as I have been, rest assured though that I will see this story to the end. now on with the show!**

Chapter 11: Sweet Deep Darkness

Now, I know I said the Red Wings had set off to find their new prey, but errrrr... How do I put this... Let's just say saying and doing have a vast gulf of difference between them.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh WHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAARRRRRREEEEEEEEEE WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Silvie slumped to the growl and howled out in pained frustration at our lack of progress.

I flopped against a mountain wall and leaned my head against it, sighing with the same feelings. "Erghhhhhhhhhh... When I said wwe were gunna teach 'im a lesson I didn; know it wuz us who was gunna be tested first." I then sank to the ground, the kick I got from suddenly feeling all heroic had long since diminished into non-existence due to having run about with absolutly no clue where our prey was. It was as if the trail had been erased the moment he stepped out of Dangruf Wadi and into the mountains.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, we'rrrrre neverrrr gunna find anything at this rrrrrate." Silvie moaned again bitterly, I had to agree, the search was fruitless, there wasn't a single person outside of Dangruf Wadi who had experienced anything unusual or who had caught sight of a Dark Knight. It was utterly insane, where the H could the bastard have gone to? Dark Knight or not he couldn't hav just up and teleported the moment he left Dangruf Wadi, not unless he was allied with a Black Mage, and from the way he'd acted when we first met, I had a good sense that he wasn't the type to readily group with others.

"Didn't he head up to some mountains last time we saw him?" asked Murris out of the blue. Wondering what exactly he was getting at I fired a question back at him.

"What good does that do us? Yeah he went to mountains but those were mountains in South Gustaberg. We're nowhere nea there and he can't be either unless he can fly."

"Well, most thieves tend to dwell in mountains or other rough terrain where attacking them off guard is difficult and laying taps is easy." said Murris.

I lost myself in thought for a minute as I pondered this. If what Murris said was true, then it would make some sense why no one we encountered had anything to say about having met any Dark Knight, and it would help narrow down the search...slightly. "Alright then, we'll go with that, let's go back to Bastok for now and collect our reward, we'll see too if we can find info on the Dark Knight later on. Agreed?"

"Ehhhh, betterrrr then just floating arrrrround rrrrrrandomly and hoping we come acrrrrrross a lead I guess." said Silvie with an exhausted and irritated yawn.

"Right, right, we'll not got anywehrre like this." said Murris.

"Nothing Bet-aru to do." said Curru.

"Ditto." said Lauria. and the three of them got up and together we headed back toward Bastok hopefully we'd find some useful info when we got there.

xex

We arrived back at Bastok sometime near dusk and again, I found myself suprised by how many adventurers were STILL roaming around and doin their adventurin thing. In fact, if I didn't know better I would say there were more out NOW then there had been earilier! Tryng my best to work out this conundrum in my head I lead the group up the presidential office where the director of the mission handed us our reward when we showed him proof of our victories. With our sachels now well stocked with funds we left and headed for the Craftsmens eatery, where we planned to obtain our dinner and discuss our plans for the following day.

We seated ourselves quite confortably in the very table me and Silvie had used only this morning. We were promptly met by a waitress. "Hello may I take your... Oh Lauria! Hey! How ya doin?" No no noooooo! I was starving, I had a stomache that was about to eat itself alive, if I didn't stop this soon the off-handed greeting would lead into a night-long back-and forth assault of meaningless dialouge, FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY IT HAD TO BE STOPPED!

"Ohhhhhhhh... huuuuuuuuuungrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy..." I moaned in prolonged fashion, hoping that it would quell the coming tide of talk.

Altana must have been smiling on me, because the waitress suddenly broke off (Lauria gave me a glare) and got back to taking our orders.

"Sorry bout that(I'll talk with ya later Luary) may I take your orders?" I felt a surge of excitement corse through me, I had a starving stomache and a sachel full of enough that I could order whatever I wanted twice over. Oh yeah, I was in it baby.

"I'll have the... theee uhhhhhh..." But whatever it was I thought I was guna order suddenly fazed out of my conciousness, and once again I found myself entering what I now thought of as the Haze World. I still didn't have a damn clue what the H it was, but was pretty sure by this point that since it was so damn insistent on showing itself to me it must be signifigant or important somehow. Or maybe some supernatural grade a hole was just having a go at me I dunno, and you don't either, so rather then pointlessly drawing this out let's just get to what the visions have to show me now shall we?

_"You are not fullfilling your full potential, you could have easily slaughtered thoase adventurers, it is for that purpose that I gave you this power." said a tall blurry figure in a black cloak._

_"NO! I'm no executioner! I only destroy Beastmen!" said a figure whom I could not make out clearly, though he seemed tall, and had red hair._

_"You will do as your told. I gave you that power, and I can just as easily take it away." said the tall blurry figure in the cloak._

_The figure with the red hair began to back away slowly, shaking his head. "I I can't- you, you can't believe in this..."_

_The cloacked figure stepped forward. "What I bileve in is no concern of yours now... wha are you doing? NO! STOP!"_

_Witthout warning the figure with red hair whos armor I now recognized as that of a Dark Knight let loose a fireball upon something out of my sight whatever it was there was a sudden silence then..._

_**SHhhhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwOooooAAAAAAAAKABOOOOOOOM**_

_An explosion so massive I thought surely I was dead. Suddenly the red haired fiure was right in front of me, I found myself involuntarily looking up at him._

_"Wha?''_

_"Quiet, We don't have much time, this whole place is going to come down in moments." I heard a chinking sound, and saw that the red haired guy had broken chains that apparently bound me. as explosions rang around the two of us I found myself lifted up off the ground. over the roar of fires and explosions I heard voices shouting. Angry, vengeful, panicked, only the emotions behind them could be heard the flames drowining out the words._

_Suddenly I found myself going horizontal and was now seeing both the ceiling and his face. He began to run through the chaos, he flight lost amid the destruction._

_"Wha who, where are we going?" I heard myself speak involuntarily._

_"Far away from here. They'll come hunting for us!" shouted the red haired guy over the noise._

_"Wha, but this place is doomed, how?" again, involuntary words from me._

_"There'll be survivors, they'll find another place for a base! Before that happens we need to disappear! Now hold on tight we're goin for a bumpy ride!" and suddenly I found my arm covering my face as the sound of glass shattering filled my awareness, as well as another shhhhwwwwwwoooooosh as the flames found a new router to escape from. we were propelled outward by the force, landing forcefully, on the snowy path of what appeared to be a high up mountain peak, catching a look back, I saw that the place we had come from was carved into the mountain itself, a mountain peak that was currently caving in on itself. _

_I found myself transfixed by the unreal sight of something so massive collapsing so easily. It was only when the red haired guy started moving again that I found my eyes torn from the sight. "Aghhhhh DAMN! AVALANCHE!" running and sliding, the red haired guy made a desperate bid to outrun the oncming tumult of snow dirt and ruined debris, only just managing to make it to a cliff overhang that we were able to slip under allowing the avalanche to pass us by unharmed... so longas there wasn't enough of it to plow us in._

_For a moment we were perfectly still as the tumult of snow and debris mae its calamatous decent from the mountaintop. After an eternity of waiting the snow finally began to slow and at last stop, then. I found myself being set on the hard snowless ground._

_"Can you move?" the red haied guy asked._

_"I- I think so." I found myself saying while involuntarily getting to my feet._

_"Then let's keep moving, we're in no way safe yet, we have to reach a town or someplace at least moderatly civilized, they won't risk pursuit as long as theres the risk of someone discovering them."_

_"O-okay..."_

_And as the two of us began to walk I felt a force tug at me as though from another world._

_"-lin...Carlin... HEY CARLIN WAKE UP!" I felt a pain in the side of my head, and suddenly the Haze World fazed back into the normal world._

"Erhgh,m ugghhhm wha huh, where? I found myself sitting up in an unfamiliar location.

"We're in my house, you can relax for now, geez you look sick." I heard Laurias voice coming from the side, I looked over toward her, well, I tried to anyway, I suddenly found that I had no energy, I collapsed back onto the bed, hafd I had energy though, I likely would have shouted my guts out, as I had caught my reflection in the mirror, at least, I think it was me, though I don't recall ever having nearly transparent skin, or having quite so many red and blue veins so clearly visible on my face.

"Oh Altana please look out forrrr him..." I heard Silvie speak from somewhere out of sight. Murris was no where to be seen.

"Wow-taru, I've never-ever seeny -weeny these symptom-wymptoms before-taru." I suddenly found my field of vision obsucred by a round blushing face with two tiny eyes. I tried to say something, like, for instance 'get the H offa me, but I couldn't muster the strength, I felt sick to my stomache and couldnt even try to fall asleep. Whatever the H had happenned to me, it wasn't good, when I had the energy, I was gunna have to fess up to these vision things I kept having, before they took my life away with them...

end chptr 11


	13. Chapter 12: Distorted Reality

A/N Holy crap! an update (que hallelulya angels and shiny lights and stuff) sorry it took so long, hope it was worth the wait! please R & R as usual.

Chapter 12: Distorted Reality

There was little cheer to be found when I awoke, some time later, still in the same bed, in the same room. I looked around idly, not really caring what I did or didn't see. My current state was hardly better then the one I'd last seen myself in, a quick look in the mirror confirmed that for me. I aid my head back down on the pillow, feeling nothing but pain, anger and frustration swimming around in my mind. The worst of it was, this was all inexplicable, sure I had intentions but what good would it do me to obsess over them? None of course, that at least, was what I told myself again and again and again and again and again and again.

These affirmations to myself however, only seemed to increase the sense of pain, of anger of frustration. And it was because of this that when a certain kitty came up to me, asking if I was okay, I responded with a harshness that wss not at all directed at the person who received it. "I'm FINE, alright? Just fine..." She leaned back, startled, perhaps her ears pressing against the sides of her head, I saw confusion cross her face, anger, and sadness.

"Hey! I, wha... Well, whatever, I'll, I'll be right back." And with that she turned away and briskly walked off, I could have sworn she was emitting steam as she did so. What the H was her problem anyway? She sure was one hell of a moody character. A few seconds later Murris came over from some place out of immediate sight.

"Hey now is that any way to treat a lady, you'll never score with that attitude." He sat down on a chair that I only just realized had been set next to my bed and laid a rather large bowl down on a small table that was also at the side of the bed. It was filled with some foul smeeling liquid, to say nothing of its appearance. I don't know what he intended to do with it but he was in for one hell of a fight if it had anything to do with me. "Come on now, time to take some medicine so you can get better..."

"LiKE H! YOU KEEP THAT CRAP AWAY FROM ME OF I'LL INCINERATE YOUR HAIRY GORRILLA-LIKE ASS!" A foul look crossed Murris's face.

"Oh is that so?"

"NOOAAAAGGHGHHH!" He grabbed me from the bed in head lock and took a ladle sized spoon, dipped it in the bowl and jammed it into my mouth. "HEYEYFDDGHKLLJKKKYYYSSSSHTYYLLSS!" I tried in vain to resist the foul tasting liquid being forcefead down my throat. "FSHSHSLG AAAAALLLLLP!"

"OH MY GOD MURRIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I was relieved to hear the voice of Lauria as she she exite the kitchen ran over to us, grabbed the ladle from Murris, and began to beat the crap out of him with it. "ARE-YOU-TRYING-TO-KILL-HIM?" She shouted between instances of heavy ladle whipping.

"AGH AGH AGGHHH COMEN BOY WAS GETTTIN FRESH TOUNGED WITH ME SO I HADDAA-!" He was cut off by a thwack to the mouth.

"HE-IS-OUR-LEADER-YOU-CAN'T-TREAT-HIM-LIKE-THAT-BES-IDES-HE'S-SICK-HE-PRO-BAB-LY-DOESN'T-KNOW-WHAT-HE'S-SAYING!" Lauria finished finally as Murris managed to squirm and roll his way a safe distance from the striking range of her ladle.

"ARIGHT! ARIGHT! Geez...why ya godda hit so hard..." and he moped on away, leaving me alone with Luaria.

"Sorry about that, he can be a jerk at times." Sh sat down next to the bed. "Here, you really do have to drink this thoough, so, uhm... try to imagine its something...tasty..." I could only frown at this, a septic tank had better appeal to it then that bowl of sludge... I really didn't-

"Ah, alright fine, ahhhh." I opened my mouth to recieve the medicine, if I had to drink it, at least it wouldnt be by my own hand. Luaria didn't seem to object in the least in fact sh semed almost...delighted...

"Theres a good boy." she smiled, a smile that struck me as frighteningly cheery, I was so struck that I found myslef coughing and sputtering when I remembered that she was pouring medicine down my throat. By the time I got over it my throat felt sore and I had to shake my head to clear it of agitation. However... I noticed I felt decidedly... better. I opened my mouth to recieve another dose...

But didn't get one.

"Oh don't be seally, you can't take more then one ladle full of this per day! it could kill you! You'lll get one ladle full a day for the next three to fou days and that should be enough okay? Now you lay down and try to rest I'll go see if your breakfast is ready.

And with that she walked on off. And I was left alone, in the room, with nothing to do but sit there and stare at the wall and consider my few options...(Come on now let's think, I'm going to be stuck like this for the next few days... that's not gonna be much fun to read about is it? I think you know by now where I'm going with this).

I began to feel... hazy, my vision blurred and the blurry image bnecome bnlurry and seemed to move away, a tunnel of blackness forming as the image moved farther an farther away, and then it began to come back again, coming into focus, but what I saw was not what I had seen...

That's right, it's time for another trip to the haze world. (It's beginning to seem like the actual story is more here then the real world isn't it?)

_I found myself in an outside area, there was some vegetation around me, or rather at my feet, no trees in sight, just vast fields of green._

_"Hey you alirght? You'r spacin' out again." I turned to see a red haired figure in Dark Knight's armor looking at me with something btween bemusement and concern, again, strange feelings flowd through me, feelings that for some reason I felt...but that weren't mine... what was with this anyway? was any of this real, is it all just some crazy F'ed up stuff my mind wasa coming up with for whatever reason? That didn't seem likely, my life was plenty exciting at the moment, what need did I have for stimulus?_

"Carlin- CARLIN!" For the first time I was actually angry that I had been pulled out of the weird Haze World. I at up and opened my eyes. This had been my shortest trip to the Haze World yet.

"WhUt?" My sout came out as only a hald loud moan as I sleepily turned toward my provocatur. Seeing as my eyes came into focus that it was Silvie, she had a look that seemed to reflect my own feelings at the moment.

"We're all going out to stock up on supplies, you should be well by tommorow so we're going to make sure we're prepared immediatly to go hunting for that Dark Knight." I looked up at her and blinked dumbly.

"Uhmmm... What Dark Knight?" For a few seconds, Silvie just stared, then slowly her jaw opened...then closed...then opened again, each time uttering nothing but empty sound. I continued to stare right back, wondering when shee was going to inform me what she was talking about.

"Yo, Silvie, Les' Go! Or I aint gettin ya that fish!" Silvie turned away from me and yelled to the door, specifically, at Murris.

"ARrright! Arrgight! I'm comin'." With an empty pating glance me she took off for the door. Leaving me with no explaination for her assertion tha we had to go looking for some Dark Knight. Well, if she thought I was just gonna lay here while they twaddled off to do whatever she had another thing comin'. I listened to the ound of their movement through the wall until I could no longer distinguish it from the low rumble of din from the oustide that signified a mass of congregating civilization. Then I swung myself to the side, got up, realized I felt like a years worth of grimed had developed on me, hoped into a quick bath, got dressed, and then I was out the door.

xex

Well, aside from upgrating all my basic equipment, and master a bunch of new spells that I was now elligible to cast, in both armor and spells, and even weapons, people keep harping on this notion of 'levels' and even the world itself seemed to agree, I could manage to wear or slip on anything that was 'higher then my current level' what in Altana's name wa... ah forget it the point is I was now wearing the best possible equipment for a 'level 34' guy and had upgraded my Dagger to a stronger version of the same variety. Aside from all that, I... err actually I got so caught up in what I just said I forgot the point I was gunna make.

While I headed back home to hopefully avoid a verbal assault from one of my companions for leaving my bed I saw something that for some reason caught my interest. A tall Elvaan guy with red hair and a girl in a white robe who's face was hidden underneathe a hood were busily examining an armor shop, I looked at them for a moment, wondering why hey of all the people here would catch my interest, then, seeing that theyweren't going to do much, I shrugged, shook my head, and headed back upstairs to my room to get some sleep for the big day tommorow.

The day when we would catch that Dark Knight...If I can remembr why it is we're looking for him in the first place.

end chptr 12


	14. Chapter 13: Glimmer of Destiny

Chapter 13: Glimmer of Destiny

_Fate is just a convenient phrase for fools too weak to forge their own destiny..._

As I slept I heard the voice of my father echoing in my head, strange thing too, I barely even got to know him, strange that I would even hear them, I don't even remember my dad's face, or my mothrs for that matter, this as the first time anything resembling a memory of dad or mom came into my conciousness...why? It made no sense, what was the use of such a random phrase uttered by my father practically in my infancy? It was part of some poem, that much I remembered, and that was it, there was nothing else to it, there it was just floating in the ether, strange too. This was my first dreamless sleep in...ever, I knew I was asleep but I had kept myself from waking up, I like when that happens, ever had that thing where you sleep, start to dream, eventually realize its a dream, but don't wake up? I love that, suddenly its like you gain access to this whole other world... a fragment of your inner conciousness, a place where you have complete control over wha you do, and there are no consequence for right or wrong, because all your deeds are erased at the moment you awake...

But do they? Strange, Very Strange, I was not one to dwell on things, but for the first time, thanks in no small part to the influence of the Haze World, I found myself going into deeper and deeper thoughts about the nature of dreams, the worlds that existed in them, and the very world that I was pretty sure was the 'real' one. I now wondered, was there such a thing as a dream? Or are they simply a bief glimpse into another reality that our soul exists in? That seems like it might be the case I mean, while I've been able to take control of many dreams, I couldn never control the world itself, if I wanted to fly, I couldn't unless the world let me do so, if I advanced on a cetain furry lady, I could do so, but could not make the girl agree to my advances, strange... if this really were a world thought entirely up by my own mind, why then could I not control every aspect of it, it couldn't be anything other then another reality, another 'real world' where this person called Carlin the Red was but a figment of anothers imagination, a part of his or her 'dream world'.

Perhaps even, dreams were not entirely an individual exprience, could it not be influenced by the proximity of others? if conditions were right, could two people share the same dream, or rather, could one person make their reality become another persons dream? These thoughts and more came floating and fleeting drifting around and around in a great see of darkness that for some reason did not frighten me. I suppos it's because I've never had a bad experience with darkness, I've never even had what people call a nightmare, does that man that I, ha I mean Agh...

"Yo Carrrrlin Wakey Wakey! Time to get up!" Silvie was leaning over me, shaking me, annoying the hell out of me, attemtping to get me to rise from my bed.

"Argih ARGIHT! Geez let a man rest." I rose from my bed, What had I been dreaming about? I don't remember, all I remeber is that damn phrase... "AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH" I shook my head violently and ran my hands furiously through my hair, finally managing to purge the troublesome thought from my mind. I turned to see Silvie staring at me with a look that suggested great fear for my sanity. I just stared at her for a moment, then leaned in close to her. "Hey..Silvie..."

"Huh? Wh-whut?" She looked up at me, blushing furously. A look of fear, and what looked like anticipation in her eyes. I leaned even closer and-

"BOO!" Scared the living H out of her by simultaneously shouting and casting Invisible on myself. It achieved the effect I desired, she fell over out of chair with a shriek and landed on the floor, tail awitchin. After a second she leaned up and got into a sitting/pouncing position.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! CARRRLIN THAT WAS MEAN! YOURRRR GUNNA PAY!"

"Heeeheheheheeheeee... We'lll seee... if you can find meeee... OOoooohhhhoooohohoh..." What? do you have a problem with my behavior? I can act like a ghost if I want to, this was a great way to show off the skills I'd mastered the other day. By teasing the hell out of Silvie. Just for the heck of it, I aslo cast Deodorizer on myself, no sense letting her smell her way to me.

Silvie stood up but suddenly scrunched up her arms, as though suddenly afraid. "Ca-Carrrlin? Cummon, cut it out... say somethign! YOURRRR SCARRRING ME!"

"Oooooohhhh, Silvie, I'm commming forrrr youuuu!" I moaned out in my scariest ghost voice.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" She ran from the room and I chased after her with mad glee. So intent on my prey was I that I failed to notice other solid objects in the vicinity.

**WHUMP**

I slammed head on into a massive wall of hair, fell back on my ass, and lost my concentration, losing the effects of the two spells I'd just used.

"Oh, great, Red-boy's learned some new tricks, this outta be good. Ben wonderin why ya haven't used that ablity before... Most teenage guys who learn the Invisibility and Sound Silencind Spells... well, you can prolly guess What I'm OWW OWOO OWWW HEY DAMN YOU INFERNAL WOMAN CUT THAT OUT!" Lauria had silnced Murris with a barrage of Stone spell while I remained on the ground, laughing my ass off. hile Silvie hid behind Muris and looked at me with a cross betweeen what seemed like a desire to kill me or head for the hills and never look back.

"Yourrr such an imaturrrre JERRRRK!" She stuck her tounge out at me.

"So Carlin, when did you learn these new spells?" asked Laurtia in a casual offhand way.

"UWuh?" Oh crap, I just realized...

"Err uhmmm ahh..."

"You got out of bed yesterday didn't you?"

"Uhhhh"

"How would it be if you'd collapsed again in the middle of a crowded morning market and none of us had been there to pick you up?"

"Uhmmmmm..."

"You know what? Forget it. Let's just get going, we have to get on with finding that Dark Knight and reporting him or turning him in to the authorities."

Damn that woman, how could she make me feel guilty without adding any more emotion to her words then those you'd find in a casual persons voice?

"HWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" A loud yawn from Murris acted as the signal to end the pointless(i.e. non-pointy) argument. "YAH, Lets get outta here, aint nuthin to it but to do it as they say."

"Hey wait a mintue..." Silvie turned to me. "Carrrrlin, you rrrrememberrrr what werrre doing and why we'rrreee doin it... rrright?" I could only stare at her like she was some kind of moron. What the hell was she on about? OF COURSE I knew what we we're going out to do, we had to find that red haired Dark Knight? how did I know he was Red haired? Because the Dark Knight is the thief we had encountered earlier, why am I SAYING THAT! WHEN YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS FROM READING THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS? WHY AM I REPAEATING IT? THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE!

**IDONTKNOW!**

So uhmm... yeah back to the story...

We headed out down to the Bastok Markets to start questioning people and finding some information.

xex

"Well, that was... helpful... I think..." I said expaseratedly as the five of us sat in the cafeteria. Yes there are fiv of us... did you forget who the fifth person was? Well that's not so bad you'll remember in a minute.

"RESPECTARU FIND OUT WHAT-TARU I WANT FROM YOU-TARU UHUH! UHUH!" Curru busied himself by singing wild and slurred melodies while dancing on the counter of the bar. Clearly making a great effort top make up for the lack of attention he'd been recieving lately...(I have no idea why that is, for some reason he seems like he's here, then not coughidiotauthorcough ).

"So, we've managed to gleen that there've been several Dark Knight sightings around here recently-" Began Lauria.

"Which is utterly worthless information, as this is a hot spot for Dark Knight's for whatever reason anyway OW! DAAMN YOU INFERNAL WOMAN!"... I don't think I need to tell you what happened...do I?

"We've found out that at least one of them MATCHES THE DESCRIPTION of the theif we encountered earlier, and that he was travelling with a girl who appeared to be a white mage she had long silky black hair, green eyes, and lightly tanned skin." As Lauria spoke the descripttion suddenly clicked in my conciousness. "Siiera!" I stood bolt upright. I felt a surge of... some kind of feeling... coursing through me.

"Uhmmm... what?" asked Lauria."

S-Siiera... that description... it sounds like... my sister." I said quietly, realizing I sounded like an idiot, it couldn't be my sister, she was... wait a minute... I didn't have a damn clue WHAT condition she was in, for all I knew-

"WHOA!" that was from everyone... even Curru slid off the counter.

"Since when do you have a sisterrrr, geezz just when you think you know a guy!" Silvie complained in shock.

"Uhb Erb, Uhh, wha?" I had been preapred to launch off into a state of internalized thought, so their sudden reaction left me without the ability for proper speech function.

"Uhmmmm, well, mayb if that's the case we should keep our minds focused. From What I heard this pair as last seen heading North to some Mountains neighboring Bastok, nobody knows where they intend to go though. They Probably want to use the mine route though, those mountains have gotten vicious of late. So I think we should head there. Uhmmmm... Helllo? Is anyone lsitneing... Ohhhh..." Lauria's words were lost on the rest of us as I tried to fend off Silvie's rather aggressive interrogation, while Murris egged her on, and Curru... Curru was just Curru...

end chptr 13


	15. Chapter 14: Forceful Confrontation

Chapter 14: Forceful Confrontation

To say that the morning had been eventful would be... kinda stupid actually, after being thouroughly interrogated by Silvie I had been forced to divulge my entire family history(at least the little I recalled from Gramp's lectures and Sis's stories), and had revealed the existence of the Haze World. Lauria felt that my own assesment was prorbably correct, that somehow someone was turning their reality into my dreams. Whatt this had to do with anything though was hard to grasp, DAMN! When I had those dreams I know I KNOW I made lots of connections and figured lot's of things out...

But the moment I woke up I forgot the dreams almost entirely, nothing substantial could be recalled, even the figures within it, it was like looking into a murky swamp and trying to get a clear view of what was at the bottom. Damn this royally sucked. Anyway, having cleared the air of all that and with Luaria's suggestion in mind. We left Bastok and headed toward the mine in the Northern region. It was hard going at first because the mine and the route to it were still pretty new, hell, there wasn't even a topographical map indicating the new routes and paths that had been carved into the lanscape to make the mine functional and easier to get through.

As we approached I felt an annoying buzz in my head. It was similar to something I had felt a long while ago, hell, er I mean H not that long ago at all it was when we'd been fighting in Gustaberg. The same buzz that had soon led up to us coming on the seen of heaps of Beast Man corpses and zonked out adventurers.

"Hey, Carlin, Carlin? Geez he's spacing out again." I heard Lauria say from right next to me, but she sounded like she was at a distance.

"All I gotta say is his ass better not collapse again until we find this damn Dark Knight. This is annoying as hell already, feels like we're gettin dragged into stuff we don't wanna be dragged into." Murris gave his usual asanine observations.

"Well-taru, if he Collapsy-wapsy's why-taru dont-aru you just carry warry himmy wimmy on youry worry backy wacky?" Curru suggested nonchalantly.

"Aghhh! Will you people quit harpin on me already?" I whirled around to shout out in a huff. It had been like this since I'd told them, anytime I stopped to think or hesitated or scuffed my foot they immdiatly reacted as though I were about to pass out. "Look this is getting ridiculous you people need to- uh?" I turned suddenly, sensing something malevolent behind me. "Look sharp people, we've got company!" Everybody was suddenly on their guard... and then not...

"Uhhhhmmmm..."

"Carlin?"

"Ehhheeeee..."

"YAAAAHHH"

My instinct was confirmed when five spheres of fog settled over the ground and from them emrged night black bat winged creatures. "WHa, Wha,... DEMONS? HERE?" Lauria shouted as we we're suddenly on our guard once again.

"Haaarrrrsssss..." One of the demons pointed a black blade at us, the others all wielded sycthes. Master Valtyre's orders we'rrrreee tooo eliminate thhhhhheeem. Let none survive on pain of your liiffffe!" And with that the five demons charged at us.

"ARgh! HERE THEY COME!" I shouted as I readied my dagger to attack. "Murris! Sylvie! UP FRONT! Lauria and Curru in back! Lauria Focus on wearing them down with your spells Curru! Stay on standby until I give the word to begin healing!" I readied my own dagger and took up position behindd Sylvie and Murris but in front of Lauria and Curru. "AALRIGHT! ATTAAAAAAAAACK!" Immediatly Murris and Silvie charged forward, Murris bega to slash at the closest demon with his broadsword while Silvie began to pummel it with her fists. In the meantime me and Lauria weakened them with the Dia series of spells. Once I was nearing the end of my ability to attack I enthunderized my dagger and charged into the melee, slashing at the Demons while deftly trying to dodge their scythes, several times just barely managing to avoid being cleaved in half.

Murris, despite not being able to effectively dodge, did not need to, his armor absorbed the burunt of the scythe and sword attacks. Syvlie meanwhile managed to bring down her first demon, one of the scythe-weilders, while the sword wielding commander of the demons began to directly engage Murris, knowing that he was most likely the strongest, I decided to leave him to Murrisand moved on to the closest of the three remaining Demons, jumping over its Scythe attack and delivering a series of dagger strikes in quick succession punctuated by the highest level of Dia I could manage to soften it up in between dagger strikes. In short order my attacks combined with Lauria's brought it down leaving only three Demons.

The one behind the one I'd just defeated came forward with great quickness, slashing down so fast that I could not dodge, but only just barely parry the blow, deflecting it down and away while jumping out of the ay of his realtiatory strike, I slammed it with several strikes of Dia and jabbed at it with my dagger. Sensing that my luck ith dodging attacks was running out I decided to dart away from my oppenent for a fractal moment and buttress myself with the spells Phalanx and Stoneskin. To enehance the effect even further I cast Blink.

The Demon came at me with renewed passion striking with geat aglilty, deciding that I didn't like this Demons speed advatnage, I repeled it with a few dagger stirkes and struck it with Slow, and Gravity. When I was satisfied that I'd sowed it enough I charged in and finished it off with a flurry of blows from my dagger. It fell to the ground and evaporated into a hazy black vapor like the two before it.

Meanwhile Murris manged to weaken the Demon commander signifigantly, who seemed determined beyond reason to continue a fight his side was clearly losing. It was just when Slyvie finished the last of the Scythe Wielders that the Commander seemed to change his tune. He lapt back from Murris Just as he was about to deliver a fatal blow and landed in a crouched position with his face near the ground.

"HARAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS, ARRRRRRRRISSSSEEEEEEEEESsssssssss..." He lifted his arm from the ground to the air producing what looked like black electricity, a puddle of dark sludge seemed to form beneathe him and expand. I ordered a reatreat from the puddle until it stopped and in place of the three scythe weilders that had fallen rose four new demons to take their place.

"AGH, NO WAY! DAMMMIT!" There was no way we had the energy to take them on again. Not that many, and the commander seemed to have healed himself in the same moment in which he sumoned the new batch of demons.

"HAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! There is no escape! Surrender to your FATE!" I shook my head angrily and dismissed his words in haze of rage.

"CURRU! DO IT! NOW!" At once Curru unleashed the Curaga spell stopping only when we had been fully healed. I knew it wasn't enough, if this Demon was able to summon others to his call then there was no telling how many imes he could do it. It was a mircale we had been able to take down the first four anyway, by any standard we shouldn't have been able to at our 'level' of combat ability.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAsssssssssss, you cannot maintain such intesnity forever hume! cease this resistance and your death ssshhhhhalll be quick and agonizing!" I manage dto rise to my feet and hold my dagger in a combat stance, as I did so the others did as well.

"NOT A CHANCE! THE RED WINGS HAVE ONLY JUST BEGUN TO FLY! OUR WINGS AREN'T ABOUT TO FAIL US JUST YET!" I shouted in defiance, feeling my weariness disappear with it. "No matter, what it takes, we'll get past you, whoever the hell you are,m and we'll move on! YOU'R NOTHING!" Before I could ct on those words however, another voice spoke up.

"HAHAHAAAA, well, said Carlin veThe Red! I knew you had promise." Wha? who? Where? Suddenly, out of nowhere, a massive bust of brliiant white light decended on the Demons from above.

"HARRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAA!" The Demon Commander dodged the attack and leapt away while his Demon consorts were not so lucky. "HRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA... YOUUUUU AGAAIIIIN! DAMN YOUUU ETHHHIIIIISSSSS!" I turned to see that it was indeed Ethis, charging up from behind with a sword in each hand. He leapt over our entire group and landed infront of the Demon Commander.

"Miss Me?" And with that he unleashed a dual slash upon the Demon Commander with one strike going horizontally across near its shoulders and the other going down from head to toe. In that moment the demon split in four and evaporated with a loud defeated hissing wail of anger. In seconds the scene was normal once more. Ethis stood up and turned toward us, a smug smile plastered over his face. "Howwsat for a happy reunion?"

"Oh ETHHhhIIIIIIIIIIIIS!" Shouted Silvie(what? don't tell me you expected me to greet him like that... you didn't... did you?). Sh threw her arms around his neck an hugged him tight, and for some odd reason, the entire area from the bse of my neck to the top of my head suddenly felt as though it had been dipped in boiling lava. The inexplicable sensatiopn left me without the ability for speech, giving the other members of my party an opening to step forward and greet the Paladin whom I'd thought we'd never see again.

"Greetings, thank you for you'r help. It was greatly appreciated, honestly we are in you'r debt. I don' know what we'd've done if you hadn't showed up." Lauria spoke sweetly, with not so suble hints of flirtation hidden beneathe the surface, and suddenly my face got inexplicable hotter, which didn't do much to help the sweat situation goin on up there.

"Aww heck, i- agh, it agh... Heey Silvie, mind loosijin the noose there a lil'." Silvie suddenly leapt off him embarrssedly and I saw her blush profusely.

"Oh oh oh... s-sorrry..." She said meekly.

"Hmph, so what's your business here anyway? You been followin us?" That was Murris of course, pouty and ego blown and pissy as ever.

"Oh, err, no reason really, I'm looking for members of my team and I remembered that my second in command had a thing for high places so I thought I'd check out these mountains since they we're close by, speaking of team members, I could have sworn I'd found two of them earlier, where the heck could they have-Oh! There they are! Hey Hey! Over here you guys! I'm right here!" Ethis waved his arm apparently to a party that was some way behind us. I turned to see two tiny figures running toward us.

"ETTTTTTTHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIISSSS YOU BIGGY-WIGGY MEANY-WEANY!" Said one of them, presumably a female(hard to tell really).

"Why-taru you runny-wunny so faSTY-WASTY we barlywarely kept uppy wuppy!" said the other, presumably a male(again ahrd to tell) who looked decidedly more worn out then the other.

"Hheeheheh!" I turned back around to se Ethis rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry bout that, got kinda caught up in the moment. I fugred since you chained the Holy spell with me you were close enough to keep up. Then again I was goin pretty fast so uh...maybe not-heh." he finsihed rathr lamely, bringing his arms to his side. the two Tarutarus took the time then to walk up to him and then turn toward the group, as though only noticing them(us) just now.

"So who-woo are thesy-weasy people-weople?" said the femlae one(I think).

"Oh uh, well, the Hume guy and the Mithra girl(redundant In know shut up!) I met a while back. The other two I uhhh."

"WAIT ONE COTTON PICKIN MINUTE!" Lauria shouted with uncharacetristic extremeness. "ARE-YOU TELLING-ME, HAT YOU DO NOT REMEMBER WHO I AM AT ALL?" what the he er uh, H was she on about? Did she really expect him to remember her after only seeing her briefly as a waitress and customer? Ethis seemed not at all affected by her anger, well maybe somewhat..

"Eruhmmm... Should I? OWWW HEY THAT HURT! OWWW OWWW OWWW HEY WHAT THE H IS WRONG WITH YOU OWW OWW OWWW OWWW OWWW!" Lauria assailed him with a barrage of stone spells such as I had nver seen her unleash before, even in her dealings with Murris.

"ARE YOU SAYING THAT THE INESTIMABLY BEAUTY LAURIA FAILED TO ENSARE THE DEEEST AND WILDEST INHIBITIONS OF YOUR SENSES, HAS SHE NT HAUNTED YOUR DEEPEST SECRET DREAMS EVEN A TINY BIT?" She demanded as though the offense were one worthy of the highest form of capital punishment.

"Uhmmmm... no? OWW AGGH I MEAN- YES! OWWW HEY CUMMON OWW OWWW OWWW OWWW OWWWWWWWWWW!" Ethis shouted in pain, as he was assailed again with a barrage of stones.

"PATRONIZER!" Lauria shouted as she continued to assault him. Sighing I moved forward, brushing a feew jet black strands of hair out of my sky blue eyes to try and remedy the situation. Only to become...

"Hey Lauria cummon that's enough now OWW! Hey I SAI THATS OWWW OWWW OWWW OWW OWWWWWWWWW!"

end chptr 14


	16. Chapter 15: Reverse Revlations

Chapter 15: Reverse Revelations

"Oooohhh, ooooohh, awwwooooo..." Ethis moaned as he rubbed various sore spots on his body. After that whole charade we had gotten back on track and were currently heading up the mountain. Lauria and Curru were trailing some distance behind, apparently Curru had struck up a fast friendship with the other two Taru-taru, while Lauria simply kept her gaze two the side, not really looking at anything. She seemed to be regreting her tirade from earlier, but was clearly conflicted about whther she should apologize about it. Well whatever, I wasn't about to give her an opening to give an apology, I turned back around to see the backs of Murris and Silvie, who were standing on the left and right of Ethis.

I couldn't see their faces from my position. in the middle behind Ethis, but I got vibes from them that told me they would rather just move on with life, as though somehow me and Ethis had brought our punishment on ourselves.

"So he tizzy wizzy into this big tutiwink and he goes toodooolootooloodoootoodoolotoodooloo tooo tooo!" Curru was busily entertaining the two Taru-taru he'd met, from the way he talked to them and the way they responded, I got the sense that he was much older then either of them, but then, his appearance and that weird way of talking mad him seem perhaps the same age, damn it was really hard to tell with those Taru-taru.

When I turned to look forward again, I noticed that Ethis had decided o slow down so that he was right next to me. He apparently had somethign to say so I decided to slow down abit to keep pace. "Hey uh Carlin, about that Lauria girl..." Oh great here it came, complain complain complain blah blah blah. "Do you think my flirtation technique worked?" I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him.

"What the H are you on about?" I demanded. How in the H did voluntarily submitting to a woman's vainity fueled temper count as flirtation.

"Hey hey hey, don't go stoppin' like that or the others'll wanna know what's up, just keep walkin." I was annoyed by his excessive demands but I went with it, deciding that I concured with his desire not to get the others involved in this unpleasant conversation."I dunno, heheh, I figured I'd, y'know, play hard to get, make like I'm not into her you know? She seems like the type that's used to guys crawlin' naked over glass just to shake her hand so I figured I'd play cool like I wasn't interested, get her thinkin I'm 'interestin' know what I mean?"

"I don't have one good damn clue what the H you mean." I responded truthfully. Fun as it might be to witness I wasn't about to give this guy the impression he'd made any impression on Lauria.

"Ah man, come on, I mean, if your tryin tuh say you've got dibs then thas cool, but if not then help me out here." Dibs? on her? What the hell was this guy on? Why the H would I have dibs on Lauria I mean it wasn' like I was INTO her or anything I mean sure she had shiny light burnette hair, a chest fit for service as a pillow and a paira jewel-like hazel eyes that a man could mistake for stars at night but that didn't mean I LIKED her(What? What are you starin at? Stop LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!).

"Well, the Mithra girls not as good, but she's got a certain feral charm, if you got dibs on Lauria-" At that point Murris decided he wanted to slow down too, and Ethis immediatly shut up.

"You know, I dunno whats goin on in the back but the two of us up front can hear you loud and clear, you might wanna break off this talk until you can be assured the topics of your conversation are not within reception range." That one sentence proved sufficient to shut Ethis up for the rest of our treck up the mountain. I say 'the rest' but in reality, we only made it halfway up the mountain when-

"DEMONS!" Sylvie shouted as we came to a wide flat area of the path. Immiediatly asuming a battle stance I moved forward to examine the situation. Up ahead, I saw... geez it had to be at least FIFTEEEN Demons swarming on one particular area, Upon moving forward to get a better visual, I could just barely make out three figures in the middle of the swarm, one was slumped on the ground, perhaps unconcious, but more likely dead, considering the enemy.

"I'll go on ahead! Ariana! Moneu! Follow me! Carlin, let's combine our teams so we can taek em out easier!" Ethis shouted and charged forward toward the Demon swarm, Ariana and Moneu followed suit.

"WAITY-BAITY FOR-TARU USSY-WUSSY!" they shouted in unision as they followed him.

I wasted no time following. Shouting commands even as I charged forward to join in, Dagger at the ready. "Sylvie! Murris! Follow Ethis and maintain formation with him! Curru and Lauria, stick behind me and follow my lead! Let's go!"

"Uh-right!" shouted Lauria, as though suprised by the command, she seemed to snap out of a semi-daze she'd been in before I'd called on her.

"Right-wighty! Letaru's do it to it!" yelled Curru from behind.

When we caught up to the battle I immediatly set to work slamming the Demons with the Dia series of spells as I had before, and ordered Luaria once again to blast them with her strongest spells. Shrotly into it, the two Taru-taru that were part of Ethis's team, Ariana and Moneu I think they were called, came up and jonied ranks with Lauria and Curru, that effectively created a wall of mages in the rear, while up front we're two Paladins and a Monk. I noticed that only one of the two Taru-taru was casting spells alongside Lauria, I figured that meant the other was a White Mage and was saving her/his/it's power for healing rather then combat.

When I once again began to tap out of energy I enthunderized my dagger and charged forward, hacking and slashing wildy at any Demon that came within range, my goal wasn't to defeat any, but to soften some up as I made my way toward the center to see who was at the center of the Demon swarm.

When I finally did get there I was so shocked by what I saw that I would likely be dead if not for one of the two standing warriors there knocing me down and out of the way. "GET DOWN FOOL!" He shouted as he hacked away with great ferocity at the Demon horde. From this position I could see even more clearly the fom of the member of the group that had been downed. A female Hume dressed in a White Mage's cloak.

"SIIERA!" there was no mistake, as I crawled forward I could see that it was in fact my sister, I was in such shck that I did not realize the great and horrendous throbbing pain in my skull, that I felt when I lifted her up to check for a pulse. Perpas if I had what happenned next might have been avoided.

"CARLIN LOOK OUT!" I looked up just in time to see the Scythe coming down at me-

And in a bright flash all was dark.

xex

"Carlin..." I felt a pain in my head as I heard my name called, even the voice that called me sounded like it was in pain. "Calrin please... don't die..." I could just barely sense, in the corner of my conciousness, a faint warmth surrounding me, but particularly around my hand. The darkness around me bgan to lift, an suddenly I found myslef awash in brightness. I attempted to lift my hand to block out the light, but found my effort resisited. I looked to my right, toward the hand I was trying to lift, and waited for my eyes to adjust, to see what it was that was blocking my hand from moving. Eventually I was able to make out firey light red hair, then lighter brown fur, two big brown eyes, a button nose..

"Uhhhhh... Sylvie?" I found myself moaning dumbly as my other senses finally began to kick in. I could see as hat happened that the scene had once again shifted drastically, from the midsection of a mountain I found myself once again netled into a bed in a Bastokian dwelling. I could hazard I guess who's it was.

"Carlin! OH THANK ALTANA!" Suddenly I found myself at a loss for breathe as Sylvie latched her arms around my throat and began to squeeze me tightly. "THANK ALTANA THANK ALTANA! I was beginning to thin you wouldn't make it, oh thank Altana..." She let me go finally, and lifted a hand to her face, where great wetness had formd around her eyes.

"Uhhhh... make it?" Feelings about knowing that Sylvie cared that much about my living aside, there stood the question of what the H she was talking about. Rather then draw out the moment, I decided I'd rather ask right away. "What're you talkin about? what happenned?"

"HMPH, wat HAPPENED was that you took your attention off the battle at hand and instead focused it on a downed comrade whom you had no capability of healing anyway, leaving yourself so wide open to attack its a miracle you AREN'T dead, saved by the mere fact that you passed out before the strike connected, meaning that rather then cleave your head in two, the scythe mearly took a chunk out of meat out of the side of your skull." Wait a minute WHAT? Questions of who the unknown speaker was vanished upon the mention that a large portion of my face had been ripped off during the battle. I sat bolt upright so that I could look in the mirror, and to my shock I saw-

That I was perfectly fine, there was my face, full and whole as it ever was, not even a scar. That settled I turned to question the onewho had spoken, whom I now saw was an Elvaan, he looked much older then me, perhaps in his twenties. I recongized his armor as that of a Dragoon. "You, you we're there, on the mountain..." The Elvaan snorted dismissively.

"Yes I was there, as were several others, but at the moment they have stepped outside to obtain supplies, that battle drained all involved nearly down to their last few potions, it's a grace of Altana we defeated them all." I didn't feel any new questions come to mind when he spoke this, so instead I tried to think of some other question to ask. When another Evlaan entered the room, recongition immediatly set in and it took all of Sylvie's strength to keep me from leaping off the bed iin a surge of rage.

"YOU! WHAT THE -HELL- ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU SCUM!"

"Carlin please! You have to lay down!" Sylvie tried in vain to force me to lay down again but there wasn't a chance in hell that that was gonna happen. There, not ten feet in front of me, was the one person who seemed to have single handedly derailed the new path in life I had taken. My rage was derailed again when those thoughts led to other questions.

"WHa WHERE IS MY SISTER? WHERE IS SIIERA?" I demanded, if that bastard Dark Knight had done anything to her I would-

"The girl is currently resting in another room, she is unconcious at the moment so we have naguht to do but wait for her to awaken." That was the other Elvaan who had been here already, the taller older one.

"Tsh, you'd think I'd get some thanks, I been protecting you'r damn sister for the past week and a half, we've got nasty forces on our asses and it's been utter hell trying to keep them held 'back, how 'bout showing some gratitude." I glared at him with rage, did he think any of that made me feel sorry for him? He was saddly mistaken if that was the case.

"What about all those adventurers you F'ed up back in Gustaberg? You think I'm just gunna let that pass ya (the following lins have been censored in order to remain within rating restrictions)."

"Oh that, hrmph," For a brief second he closed his eyes and smirked. "Heh, that what you're worked up over? Youy make it sound like I killed 'em. Tell ya what? You wanna avenge 'em? I'll take you on any time. Mano e 'Elvo. How 'bout it?"

"Your on you smug bastard! I rip that smile off yur face RIGHT NOW!" I made one last futile attempt to lunge out of bed, but at that point I could hear the door opening and a voice calling in from it.

"Hey hey hey now children! You stop fighting this intant or there'll be no dinner for you!" It was the voice of Ethis, and followed closely by that, A GLORIOUS SMELL!

"FOOD!" Sylvie could no longer hold me back, I launched out of bed into the kitchen, toppling over the Evlaan I'd just been aguing with in the process. Unfortunatly I miscalculated the launch, and I too came a to a heap on the floor.

Ethis looked down at me and held what looked like a nugget of meat in hi hand. "Good doggie, wanna treat?"

I growled and bit his finger.

"OWCH!"

The nugget was tasty...

"FOOOOOOOD!"

end chptr 15


	17. Chapter 16: The True Enemy

Chapter 16: The True Enemy

"Why am I gettin hurt so much lately?" Ethis asked from the corner while he rubbed his fingers where I had bitten. Meanwhile, the other Elvaan, who's name according to Ethis was Anose, had managed to convince me to sit down with the thief turned Dark Knight in order that he might tell us his current view of events.

"While he may have committed acts against other adventurers that may be deemed inappropriate, they are hardly worthy of the level of attention you have given them. In fact, this thief has insider information on a group that I, Ethis, and the rest of the Radiant Vanguard had been tailing and confronting prior to becoming seperated during a major operation." the theif looked up at Anose and barked out in annoyance-

"Y'know, I have a name, It's Ferdinand Altherege." Anose simply blinked as though he had not heard him and continued.

"Anyway, this group, the Blackguard, has been committing atrocities and creating political, social, and economic stirfe from the shadows all over Vanadiel, according to Ferdinand here, their ultimate objective is to awaken the power of beings known collectively as the 'Hellions', Demonic beings that apparently equal the Avatar's in power and number. We don't yet know what their ultimate objective is in trying to awaken these monsters, but we can assume by their actions that whatever it is thy are plotting will not bode well for Vanadiel." I scratched the back of my head, wondering what the hell he'd just said. The only ting I got was that this Blackgarb group was up to no good and Ethis's crew was tryin' to stop it. I decided I'd try ask some more detail oriented questions and see if I couldn't puzzle things out after that.

"So this group, the...Blackgarb, who are they exactly, you said you've encountered them, so do you at least know who they are? Like names or something?" Anose was silent for a moment before he responded.

"Well, theres no telling how many there really are, but the core members are- erm ahem, Ariana, if you would-" Anose began.

"No Problem-aru." responded Ariana, who then held out her hands and producd a large white globe, when Anose spoke again, an iage appeared in the sphere.

"Valtyre Croxis, an Elvaan Dark Knight/Samurai, master of the Scythe." The image became a seen of violence being committed by a tall Elvaan, he had brownish red hair, black eyes and skin which was considerably darker then the average Elvaan's. By his eyes and his grin he was clearly a very smug and conceited person. Anose Continued.

"Jorse Veltine, a Ranger Warrior of extreme skill, deadly with any gun." The Image changed to a shorter figure, he looked like a cross between Hume and Elvaan, had light-green hair, and a pair of cold eyes that reflected extreme insanity.

"Mitirya Esithy a Mithra skilled at Ninjitsu and theivery." The image changd again to show a slinky cat girl darting in and out of shadows, she had pink-white hair, light fur, and a single red eye, the other was covered by a patch.m Within that eye I saw...nothing, a hollow empty shell, I felt chilled to my soul.

"Maru and Eralin Karuis, Taru-taru siblings with masteful magical skills and considerable summoning skill." This was the first image that did not match up with what Anose said, I saw two taru-taru, but rather then a display of what they could do, I saw one, an apparent female, yelling at, attacking, and generally abusing the other, apparently a male, who seemed to neither feel, hear, or care about the abuse he was going through. The female had redish-brown hair, grey-green eyes, and in what was becoming a familiar motif, skin considrable darker then your average Taru-taru's. The male had Blue hair and creepy Yellow eyes.

"Glyra Valtore, a Hume woman who also has extreme magical skill, though her abilities appear to be geared toward the art of Summoning, more so then the taru-taru siblings. We believe she will be their 'trump card' so to speak, in controlling the Hellions once awakened." The image changed to that of a woman, making use of a vast army of Spirits, to lay waste to a town, she had long loose black hair down to her back and green eyes that glowed with a maniacle glee.

"Lastly there's Gullock, a Galka Monk/Warrior, we believe he merely serves as pure muscle, and does not have a mjor role other then to be added strength." The last image showed a large Galka pummeling a skeleton with a bored, almost impassive look, everytime he knocked the enemy down he whipped out a random snack from his pockets and took a bite. A rather unpleasant sight all told.

"Those are the seven core members of the Blackguard, we know of a leader, but unfortunatly-" Anose cast a glance at Ferdinand- "We do not know his name, his race, or what he's capable of." Anose finished and took a sip from a mug of tea he had left over from the meal we'd eaten earlier.

Ferdinand looked highly perturbed for a moment, as though he wasn't sure what to do with himself, then- "Well, I did my part, got the girl away from 'em and-"

"Yes, if only in an unconcious, and therefore unhelpful state." said Anose firmly.

"Hey, Hey, cummon, that's not fair, I got her back to civilization-"

"And then immediatly and inexplicably decided to leave again to head for a dangerous treck of mountain."

This time Ferdinand seemed to have been caught. "Er well, uh, that was cuz'..." He didn't seem able to come up with an adequate explanation, Anose however, seemed glad to give one for him.

"But you allowed you'r lust for the blood of Beastmen to cloud your judgement. And against all intelligence, you went to those mountains to sate you'r thirst." Now Ferdinand was uterly silent, however, one person took up the chance to become very, very, pissed.

"YOU SON OF A (censored)!" That would be...me. I lunged at him and grabbed him by his thoat. "YOU'R THE REASON MY SISTERS IN THIS CONDITION YOU (censored)?" Anose grunted in what sounded like irritation behind me grabbed one of my arms, and yanked me away.

"While he certainly deserves a certain amount of blame for this, the end truth is that it was the result of a Demon's attempt to kill her, and it was his actions that prevented that from happening, we have that at least, to be thankful for." I glared at Ferdinand with an all consuming rage, did Anose expect me to just forgive him that easily? Ridiculous, He needed to pay for what he'd done! Not for what happenned to my sister but for all the things he'd done to all those other adventurers as well, I still had not forgiven him for that either.

"RGH! AND WHAT? SO I SHOULD JUST FORGIVE HIM? NOT A CHANCE!" I shouted angrily as I fought to free myself from Anose's grip.

"Actually, there is a high chance of that. In fact I guarentee it, if you want you'r future adevntures to be pleasant that is." I glared at Anose, wondering what the hell he was on about.

"Whadooyou mean?" I demanded.

"Simple, it would be best to clear the air now of your grievances, as I believe the best course of action form this point forward will be to have Ferdinand journey with your party-"

"WHAT?" Both I and Ferdinanad shouted in unison.

"NO WAY! WHATARE YOU ON? YOU WANT ME TO MAKE THIS GUY PARTY OF MY TEAM? UH-UH NOT HAPPENING!" I shouted, ws this Elvaan out of his flipflopin mind? There was no way in HELL I was gunna accept Ferdinand as a member of the Red Wings, it was absurd to even suggest! How dare he?

"SAME DEAL HERE! WHO THE HELL GAVE YOU THE AUTHORITY TO TELL US WHAT TO DO ANYWAY? YOU CAN"T FORCE THIS ON US!" Ferdinand shouted his rage nearly rivaling my own.

"Actually, I can... unless, Ferdinand, you'd prefer I turn you into the authroties for assisting a malignant agency in carrying out their schemes? I assure my word would carry far more weght then yours would." That seemed to catch Ferdinand by the throat.

"No No, way, th- THAT's BLACKMAIL!" He shouted in defiance.

To my suprise, Anose smiled. "I prefer to think of it as a 'trump card'. Now then, will you do as I say, or should I drag you down to Bastok Prison?" Ferdinand seemed at a total loss, still trying to find a way out but clearly not seeing one.

"Give it up Ferd-" Ethis spoke up at last from his position in the corner. "Anose is, shall we say 'skilled' in the art of persuasion, if you just give in now you'll get off easy, better take it before he decides to use one of his more 'convincing' methods." And he too, smiled in the same manner as Anose, and I could not help but feel that I had just been hup-wiggered, sure they had Ferdianand in a trap but they had nothing on me, I couldn't care less if Ferdinand took the fall for being who he was.

"Still, not impressed here! Give me one good rason I should let that rat-bastard into my party?" Anose looked down at me, and squeezed he area of my arm he was holding and lifted me up off the floor, with that one hand...

"Because, Hume, if you do not, we, the Radiant Vanguard, will not help in the recovery of your sister." I felt as though I had been stabbed in the chest. He had me there, A Demon had placed some kinda curse on her... I would have to depend on the Radiant Vanguard to help... but...

"Fine, but what good is this? Why do you need the Re Wings help? Wha'ts in it for you?" ANose shook his head.

"There's nothing in it for _us_ exactly, but the world as a whole will collectively benefit from our preventiitive measures. You'r role, is to be the counter force to the Hellion's, should they be awakened." I stared at him and felt my mouth drop to the floor.

"ARE YOU NUTS? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO GO UP AGAINST THESE HELLIONS?" I shouted.

Anose chuckled. "If you recall I mentioned that the Hellions we're equal to the Avatars in power?" realization dawned on me, but bfore I could voice it Anose spoke it. "You, as a Red Mage, are ideally qualified to be able to master and control the Avatars' powers. We, The Radiant Vanguard, shall assist in kind in this effort, The first of which is-" He produced a small nauble from a pocket under his armor. "This stone will be the key to activating the 'keypoints' from which you can call upon, and challenge, an Avatar fo the right to weild it's power, you must expose it to heat, clear skies, sand, wind, ice, rain, and thunder, you will know you have successfully charged it when the stone changes color to reflect the element it has been exposed to. He finally allowed me down from the position he had me held in.

He placed it in my hand. "You are to journery throughout Vanadiel, exposing the stone to each of the elements I described in their rawest form, when you have charged the stone with all the elements, contact us with this-" he handed me what looked like a small black pearl. "This is a 'linkshell' the other members of your paty have them as well, now our two groups are as one. When you contact us, we will join you to assist with the conquering of each of the eight Avatars. Here are some scrolls...er you should put those two items aay for now..." I obediently put the two items away in my travel pack. "Okay, these scrolls will youw you the incantations for calling upon eight elemental spirits, as you journey you should make it a priority to learn these incatations and master effective useage of the spirits. That should help you prepare for the time when you will be called to challenge the Avatars themselves."

I found myself at a loss for words, staring don at the handful of scrolls that Anose had given me. Fin the eight elements in their rawest form and expose the stone to them, master the summoning of spirits, challenge the Avatars, and then who knows what kind of trials I would face after that. This was so far above and beyond anything I ever expected of me or to experience in my life that for a moment it all felt unreal, like a floaty dream. However, my sisters revival hinged on me being able to accomplish this task, so-

"Fine, I'll do it, I'll do it all, and then I can finally go back to a life of quite normalcy." I looked up at Anose, feeling firm conviction well up inside me as I did so. "Make no mistake, that's all I'm fighting for, when it's all said and done, I just wanna go back to a quite life, maybe take up smithing as a career, I've already had enough adventure to last me a lifetime." To my suprise Anose laughed.

"A very good cause to fight for indeed. Well, then, your friends, should be returning soon. You'll be sure to tell them of course?" he asked in good humor.

"Right, I'll tell them everything, including the fact that our team has a sixth member-" I cast a dark glance behind me toward Ferdinand, he returned a similarly dark gaze. My finals words were a mumbled whisper more to myslef then to Anose. My mind going over a thousand questions as I considered the very thought. "The sixth member of the Red Wings... Ferdinand Altherege the Dark Knight..."

end chptr 16


	18. Chapter 17: Looking Inward

Chapter 17: Looking Inward

"Hey...where's Silvie?" That was the first question that cam to my mind when I woke up this morning, it had been two days since the Dark Knight/ slash Thief Ferdinand Altherege became a member of the Red Wings, a fact I still was not fond of.

"She's out with Anose, again." said Murris from his spot at the table. He was currently arm wrestling with Ferdinand, and losing.Oh right, for the past two days, Silvie would disappear for long stretches of time as would Anose, a fact that REALLY REAALLLY BOTHERED ME.

And the thing is, I still can't figure out why. Why did her proclivities bother me, why did I feel stung when her gaze turned sharply from mine, whenver our eyes met? When she looked glowingly at other guys? Why? _CLUNK_ OWWW! I felt a sharp pain on my head.

"Carlin, would you PLEASE stop spacing out all the time? It's really starting to get creepy." Lauria, she had whacked me over the head with a ladle she was using to make breakfast Faerie Apple Oatmeal.

"Y'know I'm REALLY gettin tired of all the abuse I get put through around here, I mean, I'm you'r LEADER aren't I, I hink I shoukld get SOME level of respect!" I shouted angrily.

"Heh, Respect? Last I checked people had to EARN respect." That was Ferdinand. I whirled on him.

"WHO ASKED YOU YOU Meuniere Mithkabob?"

"Ooohh touchy touchy! NGH! Is he always this chipper, or is it just in the mornings?" He smuggly asked while still struggling against Murris.

"No, usually he's an angsty moody emo Red-boy." said Murris with a smug grin.

"AH DAMMIT! FORGET THIS I'm OUT OF HERE!" And I stormed to the door.

"HEY WAIT A MINUTE! I'm MAKING Broiled Egg omlets! Sausage Rolls! Chocolate milk! and Chamomile Tea! YOU'D BETTER NOT SKIP OUT ON THE MEAL I PUT EVER SO MUCH EFFORT INTO!" shouted Lauria from the kitchen.

"YEAH YEAH! SAVE ME A PLATE I'm OUTTA HERE, BE BACK LATER!" I walked out and slammed the door shut behind me. "TSH! This sucks." I headed out to Ziek Creek in North Gustaberg. Where I could clear my head with a good fight or two.

xex

When I finally got there however, I saw something, heard something...

"Now focus, feel the rythm of yourself and your opponent-" That voice, commanding and smugly superior...

"O-Okay..." another voice, a feminen purr. "Feel the rythm, be the rythm... HAA FUU HYAA!" After the sound of several thwacks and thunks I heard a monster howl. I started to run toward the source of the sounds then stopped short. Silvie and Anose, they were close, VERY close, he was at her back, guiding her body into an attack pose...BUT DID HE NEED TO BE THAT CLOSE?

"Now, see past the monster, see it's center, it's core, and STRIKE!" Silvie stepped away from him, and assumed the attack pose he'd shown her.

"Right! Center! Core! ATTACK!" She stepped forward to a close range to the monster...way too close, WHAT THE H WAS SHE THINKING? ShE COULDN"T HIT WITH FULL POWER AT THAT RANGE!

"SILVIE!" I started running toward her with a spell ready.

"HUH?" SIlvie looked my way.

GRAWR! "EYEA!" She just barely dodged a blow from the monster a Crawler, the reassumed her fighting stance, the same damn range! "YAHH!" and punched, it...barely, from start to finish her punch had traveled just one inch...but apparently that was enough. The creature howled and fell to the ground in a heap...dead.

"SILVIE! WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED LIKE THAT!" I ran toward her.

She looked toward me oddly. "Oh Carlin..." I stopped in front of her. "WHY DONCHA-" She smashed a fist into my face and sent me flying backward. "GROW THE H UP!" _CRASH_.

"Owww..." I tried to get up.

"ANYWAY, Anose was training me in how to be a Samurai! I'm gonna give up on White Magic and supplement my Monk skills with the Samurai arts. AND WERE DONE FOR TODAY, SO -IF- YOU'LL EXCUSE ME!" I looked up just in time to see her walking toward me..

"WAI-ARGH!" she walked right over me! After she went a ways aay, Anose came up and looked down at me, in more ways then one.

"You know, your gunna lose points with her if you keep up that bull headed attitude of yours." I leapt into a sitting position.

"WHO THE H ASKED YOU! ANYWAY I SAW HOW COMFY YOU WERE TRYIN TO GET WITH HER SO DON'T EVEN TYR TO TALK TO ME ABOUT "POINTS"!" to my supreme annoyance, he chuckled.

"Perhaps I am, but what is it to you? It's not like you have any right of claim over her."

"Geh, ERh, THat THAT's BESIDE THE POINT! I DON"T WANT YOU GETTING COZY WITH "ANY" OF MY TEAM! I WANT YOU AND THAT DAMN ETHIS TO HAVE AS MINIMAL CONTACT WITH US AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE!" Anose huffed and close his eyes.

"Why don't you-" He kicked me in the head, and stalked off, "Try looking inward a little, before throwing your verbal barbs around like ballisitc maniac?" And he stalked off. A few moments later, I felt my sotmach hurt.. and hurt, and moan, and growl..

"AGHH AGHHH! FOOOOOOD I NEED FOOOOOD!" I leapt up and shambled as quickly as I could back to Lauria's house, there was noc chance in H I was gunna miss breakfast over this!

xex

I made it back just as brakfast was being cleared away. I SLAMMED the door open, panting, wheezing, and generally sweating a dark cloud hovering around me. "There-better-be-some-for me..." I growled as I stalked forward. The only person in the kitchen at the moment was Lauria.

"Geez someone looks like H." Murris attempted a jab from the lounge room. I sat down at the table in the kitchen without a word, I was too hungry to throw anything back.

"Well I'm glad you could find the time to make it back!" Lauria shot at me, she then opened the food heating unti and handed me a plate. "There, some of everything, and-" she handed me a bowl. "My special oatmeal." I took up my utensils, stared down at the food, took a few sniffs.

"SNARRR RAURGH RAAA RAWWWRRR!" tore into it all like a rabid dog, chewing and eating and drinking almost all at once, to Lauria's supreme horror.

"HEY HEY HEY I SPENT A LONG TIME ON THAT FOOD SLOW THE H DOWN AND AT LEAST TASTE IT!" She shouted angrily.

"GRAH CAN'T TALK, EATING!" I shouted throw gulps.

"Slow DOWN, Slow DOWN... I SAID SLOW DOWN!" she slammed me on the head with a Stone spell. BUT THAT DIDN'T STOP ME! I kept eating until everything was gone, then I sighed longly. "HAAAAAAAA, goood stuuufff." I leaned back with half closed eyes and rubbed my belly. Luaria turned away with a half blush, half scowl.

"Well-well I'm glad you liked it, now clean your plate. Ethis and Anose left awhile ago, we're going to have a meeting and decide where to go from here. We'll see you in there." and with that she got up and walked off, and what a nice walk she had too...

end chptr 17


	19. Chapter 18: Going Forward

Chapter 18: Going Forward

After the meeting, it had been decided that we would first head to the outskirts of Bastok in order to expose the stone to sunshine, it was still early and sunny out, so that was the most obvious and easiest choice. After some brief preperatiopn in the Bastok market, the six of us set out.

"...soooooo..." Murris, drawled in a bored sounding voice.

"Y'know, for something so vitally important to our future, this feels kinda...mundane, like we're going shopping. Shouldn't completing this task feel a bit more...I dunno DRAMATIC?" Lauria complained. I sighed in exasperation.

"Look, I don't even know what's supposed to HAPPEN alright? Besides, I chose this part first BECAUSE it's less 'dramatic' I mean, haven't we all had enough drama already?"

"Amen to that!" Silive shouted.

I lifted up the stone and held it in the air so that the sun reflected off it. "Geez, how LONG is this gunna take? We got six more spots t-" _Chheeeng_. I heard the ruby emit a strange pulsating sound and suddenly it began to glow. "Hey, Hey HEY I I DID IT WE DID IT! IT'S GLOWING IT's GLOOOOWWWWING!"

Everybody suddenly gathered atround to watch it glow. "Wowwy-zowy! Looky wooky at it!" exclaimed Curru in awe. Suddenly, the ruby disappeared from my hand.

"HEY!" Ferdinand had grabbed it from me and was now holding it up and squinting at it. "Man, this is what we were waiting so anxiously for? What a buncha B. He tossed it back towards me, I caught it angrily.

"HEY! DON"T TOSS IT LIKE THAT YA MORON! YAH MIGHT BREAK IT!" I calmly slipped the ruby back into my travel pouch. "I AWWTA GIVE YOU A-" I was cut off when I saw something vauge somewhere ahead... a strange... creature... greenish blue, with a dot of red somewhere, about the size of a small dog... at least, I THOUGHT I saw something, but i blinked and then it was gone, which left me in a daze, a daze I was snapped out of when-

"What? You awwta what? Cummon big man, spit it out!" Ferdinand's taunting words caught the edge of my conciousness.

"Dammit Ferdinand Just shut up!" I shouted, I could have come up with something clever, but, but, Well, WHY DOn't YOU Try coming up with something when you just saw some strange lookin thing giving YOU the eye!

"GAWD -BOTH- OF YOU KNOCK IT OFF IT'S GETTING OLD!" shouted Lauria, who then proceded to cast stone on both of us.

"OWWWW! STAY OUT OF IT!" we both shouted simultaneously, and continued to glare and growl at each other.

"OHHH GAAAAAAWWWWWWWD!" Lauria clutched at her head and moaned in annoyance.

At that point Murris stepped forward. "This REALLY is starting to get annoying. Why don't you two boys give this up before I-"

"YOU SHUT UP!" and me and Ferdianad both attempted to punch Murris, Yes that's right, we attempted to punch a Galka Paladin in full armor, can you guess what happened I'll bet you can, I'LL BET YOU CAN!

"THAT'S IT!" He lifted up both fists and thumped them down on our heads. All I remeber is becoming very slinky like before blacking out.

Suddenly, everything became hazy, My eyes opened, I tried hard to see, as my eyesight cleared I saw... Ground I was being... carried? I looked to my right, there was Ferdinand on the other side. I looked up, saw Silvie and Lauria, they appeared otherwise distracted,(HAH YOU THOUGHT IT WAS THE HAZE WORLD AGAIN DIDN't YOU? DIDN'T YOU?) So I took the opportunity to admire their beauty. Wait Wait WHAT NO NO FORGET I SAID THAT! I'M NOT INTERESTED I SWEAR!

When I saw that they were about to look back at me I pretended to still be out cold, maybe I would b able to hear what they were saying if they got closer... But that notion went unfulfilled, they became silent as soon as they would have been in vocal range.

_SPLASH_

"SPLAH! SPLUH SPLHA WHA?" I sputtered and sputtawwed, from the unexpected splash of wetness. "Whe What Wha The H?" I shouted out and sturggled to free myself from wetness.

"Gurd Durnint." I suddenly felt the wight around me shift, and suddenly I found myself falling and-_Thud_ hitting the ground hard. Murris had released me from his grip. "If yer awake thas great, walk on your own. we're almost to the Valkurm Dunes." I got up and rubbed my head.

Both Lauria and Silvie were chuckling at this point. "Got him?" asked Lauria.

"Totally got him!" Silvie responded gleefully, slapping her a high five. I cocked an eye at this and stood up, rubbing my side.

"Since when are you two so chummy chummy?" I asked.

"HMMMMM?" Lauria hmmed at me smuggly and walked past.

"I wonderrrrr..!" Silvie teased and walked past me as well. I watched both of them walk, such nice walks... and suddenly saw their eyes flick back toward me! I wa quick enough to look away though, so they didn't catch me, SUPER SMOOTH! THAS ME!. I followed them all to Valkurm Dunes.

xex

Almost as soon as we got there I heard strange little voices. "Hey looky looky!"

"Many many!"

"We take we take!"

"HEADS UP!" I shouted when I saw the source of the voices, Goblin's, LOTS of them. converging on our position with unexpected speed. We all assumed battle positions, but we couldn't assume a formation, we we're being converged on from three sides.

"DAMMIT!" I cast the Dia series of spenns on as many of them as I could hit, managing to take a few down in that burst, but there were still alot by the time I tapped out, I Enfire'd my dagger and charged at the remaining enemies.

Meanwhile behind me Curru and Lauria attacked with their own brand of spells, Silvie, making some impressive use of her new Samurai enhanced Monk skills. and Murris, Murris did what he did best, take the hits and dish them out in spades.

After a long and arduos battle(hey we were ambushed by them lay off!) we finally beat all the Goblins. At which point I became aware of something...in the distance... I tried to catch a glimpse of it... it was, greenish-blue, with a red dot on its forehead, about the size of a small dog... I felt my eyes widen, I tried to tell the others about it... but the minute I looked away it was gone.

I reached into my pocket and looked at the ruby, it was glowing.

Two down...

end chptr 18


End file.
